The Ukrainian composer Galina Grigorjeva (b1962) has always had a natural affinity for the voice, and in particular choral writing. She has a remarkable ability to surprise the listener with a combination of a completely traditional aesthetic approach, deriving from both sacred and secular traditions of the past, and a hugely discerning employment of things that come from another context and age entirely.

Nox vitae (2006 08), a cycle to tragic poems by the Russian Acmeist poet Innokenty Annensky, is in this respect the most traditional of the works recorded here, but to say that is to overlook its remarkable cumulative power, which becomes absolutely overwhelming in the final movement, ‘The Snow is Falling’. The Estonian National Male Choir is the ensemble for which it was written, and they are completely at home with this music, catching every nuance and dynamic shade. Diptych (2011) is very different. Its roots in Russian Orthodox sacred repertoire are more than evident, especially in the second movement, ‘Ne ryday Mene, Mati’ (‘Do not lament me, O Mother’), which is clearly influenced by medieval Russian polyphony and accordingly much more complex than it at first appears (as in fact I know from experience, having conducted the work myself). But the work does have in common with the Nox vitae cycle that cumulative power – the first movement is a setting of the Song of Simeon, which acts as a kind of prelude to the vision of the Resurrection encapsulated in the second (the text of which is used liturgically at Matins of Holy Saturday).

The two works with solo cello are deeply impressive. The first, God is the Lord, used as a psalm response in Byzantine-rite Matins, makes clear reference once more to traditional Russian Orthodox style but is heightened and deepened at the same time by the composer’s exultant use of the cello as a kind of commentator on the text. This is even more the case with Prayer, which in fact exists in various different scorings, though I can hardly imagine any of them being more effective than this one, which demands and receives everything from both choir and soloist (Theodor Sink). Two Latin-texted pieces end the programme, the first an elaborate and rather unusual setting of the Agnus Dei from the Latin Mass, and the second a much briefer setting of In paradisum from the Requiem Mass. Latin the text may be but its sensitivity is entirely Slavic – I never expected the words ‘chorus angelorum’ to suggest the chiming of Orthodox bells.

Arresting and original music, superbly sung. Very highly recommended.