Of all the facets of Mendelssohn’s large and varied output, it would appear to be the choral music that has suffered most from his chequered posthumous reputation. It’s true that his lyric gift was such that over-sentimental interpretation could render it twee and saccharine, but his critical standing has not been helped either by a strong vein of anti-Semitism, ranging from Bernard Shaw’s dismissal of his ‘kid-glove gentility’ and ‘despicable oratorio-mongering’ to much worse from the pen of the composer’s younger contemporaries and from the actions of intolerant political factions during the following century. True, Elijah is accepted as the masterpiece it self-evidently is, albeit not without occasional performative nose-holding, but the equally ambitious and effective St Paul is hardly ever accorded similar respect, and the smaller liturgical music is generally seen as no more than the province of repertoire-hungry collegiate choirs.

Recordings devoted to this repertoire don’t come around as often as you might think – top-flight groups such as The Sixteen or the Monteverdi Choir have thus far given it a wide berth – so it’s a pleasure to welcome this beautifully prepared and sincerely performed survey from the Latvian Radio Choir. The high vaults of the exquisite Lutheran Church of St John in Riga impart a ringing resonance to their sound, reinforcing the strength of Mendelssohn’s homophonic choral blocks and allowing sufficient clarity that characteristic passages of rolling double-choir counterpoint are empowered to exert their full effect. There is enough space in the acoustic, too, for generous tempos to be confidently taken: ‘Richte mich, Gott’, the second of the marvellous Op 78 Psalms, for example, spreads out to take more than half a minute longer than St John’s College Choir in the more direct acoustic of their chapel, the Deutsche Liturgie over a minute more (Nimbus, 3/98).

Recorded selections of Mendelssohn’s choral music often overlap in their choice of repertoire but almost never match entirely. This one instantly grabs the ear with the celebratory Psalm 100, includes the immaculate miniatures of the Sechs Sprüche and closes with the austere archaism of the motet Zum Abendsegen, all sung with the commitment, accuracy and artistry for which the Latvian Radio Choir and Sigvards Kl,ava are renowned. Strongly recommended to those who love this music; those yet to explore it will find riches galore here.