Golden Ages in general may abide our question; this one is free. Weelkes, Gibbons and Tomkins adorn it richly, and that of course is to omit Byrd, widely regarded as greatest of all. In choral music all were masters, and today their differences impress themselves less than the shared qualities which so distinguish their period. That period is the late Elizabethan, early Jacobean: the age of Shakespeare and Donne. Tomkins is the least well known of these composers and the listener may well wonder whether he is not the best. The thought may then occur that he had twice as much time on earth as the others: they died in their 40s in the 1620s whereas he lived to the great age of 84, dying in Cromwell's Commonwealth in 1656.

The programme here begins and ends in splendour. Weelkes's anthem Alleluia, I heard a voice is a dramatic setting of a visionary text from Revelation; the final item, Tomkins's O sing unto the Lord culminates in a sequence of “Alleluias” so that the recital comes round full circle. Variety is ensured by the inclusion of two settings of King David's lament over the death of Absolom his son, and by the instrumental pieces, themselves nicely differentiated in character.

They (the Fantasy and two In nomines) are expertly played by the viol consort Fretwork, which also accompanies the verse anthems. The famous choir sings with full-bodied tone and unfailing precision. I miss the lightness and refinement of Willcocks's time and the individuality of style they had under Ord. I also find the organ continuo irksome. Its “authenticity” is no justification: it adds nothing positive, is not necessary and impedes the achievement of a more sensitive style in the choral work.