With French a cappella repertory already disappearingly small, that this disc limits its programme to music written for upper voices around Toulouse makes it particularly niche, even if it does cover 400 years. It is a cleverly chosen programme, though, despite the additional and limiting clauses, although it is hard not to feel that there might have been more opportunity for interesting repertoire – particularly in the first section, which covers the pre-Revolution period – if the Toulouse brief, at least, had been loosened slightly. One newly discovered piece by the little-known composer (Antoine?) Boesset is enlightening; two might suggest to the listener that they may have preferred a bit of Delalande or, at least, more of the Danielis, which is remarkably redolent of Charpentier and brings out the unique character of French choral music of the period. The second half, too, might then have included some Massenet or Saint-Saëns, and for a disc as illuminating as this nevertheless is, that could only have been a good thing.

It is undeniable, though, that the disc feels as if it has been crafted with infinite care and love, and for that reason alone it is a joy to listen to. The sound is warmly encouraged by Mark Opstad (himself a product of the English choral tradition and responsible for the reinstatement of the Maîtrise) and collectively they have a strong sense of the heritage from which they come. That’s not to say they lose any sense of being a French choir; but they sing with all the confident, sustained tone of an ensemble steeped in its own tradition, never venturing into the shrillness that is a genuine pitfall in French choral music of any period.