Born in 1855, less than a decade after his celebrated cousin Felix had died, Arnold Mendelssohn was a close contemporary of Elgar (1857-1934), dying in 1933. Like Elgar, he wrote two symphonies and a violin concerto, but there the similarities end, for Mendelssohn devoted most of his life to his academic career, writing superbly crafted choral music like the Christmas cantatas on this excellent disc.

The Deutsche Messe is so precise in its grammatical structure that it might easily have been written by Heinrich Schütz or one of his contemporaries three centuries earlier. That it emerges as so lively in this performance by the Vocal Ensemble of SWR is in good measure due to the imagination of the conductor, Frieder Bernius, who draws wonderfully varied tone colours and dynamic contrasts from his excellent chorus.

So it is too with the other works on the disc, all of them devoted to Christmas celebrations. In Träufelt ihr Himmel, the high solo soprano entry at the start is breathtaking and the clashing intervals in the counterpoint are most striking. The contrasts between the sections too underline the drama of the texts, with a reflective section leading to a vigorous one in a galloping 6/8 rhythm. The cantata ends with a chorale, recalling the period of Bach.

So it is with the other works on the disc, all displaying the beautifully wrought writing of Arnold Mendelssohn. It is good to have a disc that gives us a new and virtually unknown Mendelssohn to admire. Like his cousin, Arnold Mendelssohn was written out of German history by the Nazis in their wilful anti-Semitism and only now, thanks to discs like this, is he at last being given his due. Transparent recording quality matches the high standards one expects of SWR Stuttgart.