Even the most earthily folk-inspired of Janacek’s music is now being sought out by foreign choirs, often with considerable success, and here is an idiomatic and lively record of music ranging from the cheerful, near-nonsensical Nursery Rhymes (or “Rikadla”), to the superb (and too little known) setting of the Lord’s Prayer. James Wood draws excellent performances from his extremely varied forces. Not surprisingly, the singers are most at home with the music that draws closest to a familiar tradition, as with the Lord’s Prayer and with the Ave Maria (which, it should be made clear, is the setting from Byron’s Don Juan which Janacek made in 1883, not the Zdravas Maria, or Hail Mary, of 1904). There is also a touching performance of the moving Elegy on the death of my daughter Olga. However, Amanda Pitt nips about irrepressibly in Kaspar Rucky, and, with Christopher Clark, gives a good account of the grim little story in The wolf’s trail, a hunt that leads to the window of the Captain’s unfaithful wife. Rather less successful is The 70,000, where it is difficult not to miss the unique tones of the Moravian Teachers’ Choir. Nevertheless, this is a well-made and enjoyable record.'