This superlative album represents Andrew Nethsingha’s exploration of contemporary music during his 15 years as director of music at St John’s College, Cambridge. All the works are by living composers, from established names such as Judith Weir, James MacMillan and Cheryl Frances- Hoad to recent Cambridge graduates such as Ben Comeau, Anna Semple and Alexander Hopkins, a choral scholar at St John’s when his Salvator mundi, Domini was first performed. Nethsingha says that generous sponsorship linked to the college’s annual Advent service and the invitation to be Choir & Organ’s inaugural New Music partners in 2010 were the main catalysts for a commissioning programme which has yielded rich fruit, including many of the pieces on this disc. Recording sessions took place over two academic years with different cohorts of singers, including the choir’s first girl choristers, but the sequence is beautifully planned and feels seamless; the transition from Comeau’s haunting Vanity of vanities to Piers Connor Kennedy’s consoling O nata lux is particularly effective. Abbie Bettinis’s Begone, winter for choir and flute magically describes the Advent progression from darkness to light, and David Nunn uses electronic sound generated from samples of water in his wonderful setting of Sicut cervus. George Herbert, winner of the Northern Ireland International Organ Competition 2023, skilfully negotiates the virtuosic complexities of some of the organ accompaniments, dazzles in two movements from Iain Farrington’s Fiesta! and contributes two further solo pieces, by Anna Semple and Francis Pott. The programme ends exuberantly with Farrington’s anthem Nova! Nova!, commissioned for Nethsingha’s last Advent service at St John’s. What a legacy he leaves!