For younger readers who have yet to discover him – and older readers for whom one of life’s essential pleasures has passed them by – Tom Lehrer, still with us at 93, is the lyricist/composer of some of the funniest songs in the English language. In 2020 he generously put all of them into the public domain. As a practitioner myself in a modest way (published by Novello, since you ask), the art of the comic song requires a simple-to-grasp melody, impeccable diction and timing, and a focused acoustic. More often than not, classically trained singers are not the best people to sing comic songs, just as cabaret artists are generally not at their best singing ‘Nessun dorma’ or ‘Casta diva’.

Which is a long way of saying this album is only partly successful. Before a note is heard, you know what kind of sound six of the 12 Lay Clerks of St George’s Chapel, Windsor, will produce and, with it, immaculate intonation and perfect ensemble. The actual singing is astonishingly accomplished.

If we look at the opening track, ‘The Masochism Tango’ (one of Lehrer’s finest), its shortcomings hold good for some of the other tracks (‘I got it from Agnes’ and ‘The Vatican Rag’). Six a cappella voices are required to produce the tango rhythm and the harmony, and also present the melody/vocal line. The arrangement is technically assured; but there are so many changes of texture, sometimes from one line to the next, that the listener is more engaged with the clever vocal gymnastics than the delivery of the tune and the lyrics. The sextet’s countertenors are not alone in such groups to struggle to cleanly articulate the lyrics.

The arrangements work so hard at reproducing the piano’s rhythm and harmony that often the ‘i cootchy coo’ and ‘doo dooby doo’ fill-ins are given more prominence than the lead vocal lines – and, sadly, the relish that Lehrer himself brings to his own lyrics (try ‘Oedipus Rex’ and ‘Pollution’) is entirely missing.

‘The Elements’ is a brilliant solo tour de force, performed by baritone/bass Simon Whiteley in his own perfectly judged, unfussy arrangement, the crippling tongue twister delivered with a panache and clarity I have never heard bettered. ‘Alma’ is another success, with its uncomplicated um cha cha accompaniment allowing Lehrer’s waspish lyrics to be heard without being crowded out by competing vocal lines.

I wish other similar groups would tackle this repertoire and include one or two – but no more – at the end of an evening of plainsong and polyphony. If the ‘backing vocals’ here were less forward, then this disc, with all its charming intentions, would have merited a lighter sentence. As it is, the verdict is not murder but manslaughter. The disc lasts 35'02".