This is quite an ear-opener. Pachelbel is well known for his keyboard music and for the famous Canon in D but his reputation as a composer of church music seems to have died with him. On the strength of this recording such a fate is undeserved, even though Kah-Ming Ng is pitching it a bit strong in hoping that the Vespers “may now be restored to the canon of choral masterpieces”.

The title is a misnomer. This is not the Vespers from soup to nuts but a selection of five settings of the “Ingressus” – the opening versicle and response “Deus in adjutorium meum” plus the Gloria – and two of the Magnificat. They were composed for the church of St Sebald in Nuremberg, where Pachelbel was organist from 1695 until his death 11 years later. They are attractive pieces, full of euphonious writing in thirds: a result, presumably, of Pachelbel’s exposure to Italianate music during his time as deputy organist of St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna.

The King’s Singers are hardly to be equated with Pachelbel’s choir of men and boys, and even with downward transposition the upper voices sound rather strained. If not all the members of the group perform well as soloists, in the tuttis their brisk cheerfulness is infectious; and there’s nothing wrong with the solo work in the most memorable section, the slow, thoughtful Gloria of the Magnificat in E flat. The strings of Charivari Agréable complement the singers admirably and offer more delight in sonatas by Krieger and Kerll.