Alamire’s recent survey of Verdelot madrigals already had a Henrician connection. Here the king takes centre stage, at least in his younger incarnation, pre-Reformation, well before Holbein’s impressive but lowering portrayal. This disc consists of pieces composed in his honour by both English and continental composers, and a generous selection of consort pieces and songs by Henry himself. With the exception of the much-recorded Tandernaken and the pleasant Adieu madame, there’s little to be said for Henry’s slight, short-winded compositions, which overuse a few stock phrases, some of them familiar from Pastime with good company (which isn’t included here). One does wonder how he got through the two Masses he’s reported to have written. The occasional pieces written for him are a mixed bag: Taverner’s O Christe Jesu, albeit originally in honour of Cardinal Wolsey, is the best of them, followed by Psallite felice by Sampson (whose canonic curiosity Salve radix is also worth hearing). At nearly 17 minutes, Lauda vivi alpha et oo dwarfs the rest, but it’s a rather sprawling affair, not Fayrfax’s best. The choral contributions, aided by a lucid acoustic, are secure and solid, particularly the Sampson and Taverner pieces, with the solo numbers slightly less convincing. It might also be noted that Lauda vivi sounds surprisingly restrained.

But the inclusion of Andrew Lawrence-King’s harp is a deft bit of programming; I’d gladly have heard more of it, and the young wind quintet Quintessential are similarly entertaining. Altogether it’s a pleasing panorama of the optimistic, extrovert mood of the English court and its young ruler, before it all changed…