The setting of Dover Beach stands out among this collection of agreeable, expertly fashioned choral works. Written for the BBC Singers in 2003, it seems likely to cling to the poem, to recur in the mind when the words are read or spoken, in a way which I have not as yet found to be so with other and better-known versions. Especially haunting is the third verse’s melancholy “retreating to the breath of the night wind”. But each section has its own strong impulse, always working within a unified, well controlled structure. Even its return to the opening lines at the end has its musical justification, though it weakens the poem’s powerful conclusion.

In his introductory note, Ronald Corp tells us that he began composing as a child before he could read music, and that he had reached “opus thousand and something” before going up to Oxford. There is perhaps a feeling that this music lies just a little too easily on the ear, that it satisfies professionally a professional need, giving choral societies scores which are attractively – but not significantly – new. But that perhaps is ungrateful. The Four Elizabethan Lyrics (1994) are strongly characterised, the Missa San Marco is both memorable and economical, and the set of seven poems (with Ben Jonson’s lines on the death of his first son an inspired choice for the seventh), which gives its title to the CD, is a moving commemoration of the life of a child fatally stricken by illness.

The final piece in the recital, Requiem (Stevenson’s Under the wide and starry sky) is not dated, but it would be nice to think it was written for this present occasion. The Voces Cantabiles sing clearly and with sensitivity; the Dutton recording is up to their customary high standard.