The Choir of New College, Oxford, kick off their new own-brand label with an ambitious work, but despite strong and numerous competition they have plenty to offer it. Most striking, of course, is the use of a chorus of boys and men (as opposed to a mixed adult choir), by my reckoning for the first time in a recording since Heinz Hennig conducted the Hanover Boys’ Choir in 1979 (Ars Musici – nla). That is over 20 recordings ago, and quite a few other changes of fashion have made their mark on the piece since. Here the benefits are apparent right from the off, as “Domine, ad adjuvandum” shines out with a sound that is bright, strongly focused and clear, but also creamy and with a characterful boyish edge to the upper lines. Edward Higginbottom’s overall approach to text is also quickly apparent, which is to deliver it with a springy, muscular and rather deliberate declamatory lilt (listen, for instance, to the opening of “Laudate pueri”). The overall result may not be as nuanced as some other performances in terms of dynamic or timing (witness a somewhat unrelenting “Lauda Jerusalem”), nor as sensuous, but no one could say that it ever lacks sense of purpose.

The boys’ voices are not restricted to the chorus, however. Uniquely, this recording has boys singing all the soprano solos, and a confidently musical job they make of them too, even if the duet “Pulchra es” loses something of its usual sultriness. Indeed, Higginbottom only brings in two outsider-singers to complete his solo line-up in the shape of tenors Nicholas Mulroy and Thomas Hobbs. Hobbs’s “Audi coelum” is vocally appealing though the second half of it seems hurried, while Mulroy’s simply but beautifully sung “Nigra sum” offers further hints that this is a singer with a good chance of becoming as much associated with the piece as a Nigel Rogers, a John Elwes or an Ian Partridge.

Monteverdi’s Vespers is a work full of interpretational choices which may or may not count for a lot with some listeners. For the record, Higginbottom makes the uncontroversial decisions to present a “straight” concert performance, preserving the composer’s printed order and eschewing added plainchant antiphons, to take a pragmatic view of the downward transpositions of the “Lauda Jerusalem” (down a tone from the prevailing A=440) and Magnificat (down a minor third), and to invite instrumental participation (expert though it is!) only where Monteverdi expressly asked for it. Yet this is a distinctive Vespers and a worthy celebration of both piece and performers.