Wie ein Kind (1979-80) is probably Nørgård’s best-known – certainly most often recorded – choral work; usually presented in all-Danish or all-Baltic programmes, its presence here, in its 1996 lightly revised version, in an all-Nørgård context is particularly rewarding. The cries and screeches in the opening movement (setting one of Adolf Wölfli’s nonsense poems) have rarely sounded so theatrical, but it is the innate lyricism Parkman accentuates. This new reading shaves a minute off his previous account, though still sounds sluggish in places, especially if compared with Svend Schultz’s electric account on Danica, coupled with the Six Danish Choral Songs (nla).

‘Flos ut rosa floruit’ is the sixth of this last-named set – but is given here in its 1991 revision, with the first stanza repeated in a Danish translation by Ole Sarvig. It’s a charming Marian hymn which Parkman makes a hauntingly beautiful, slow song and, by virtue of a tiny pause, a prelude to the brief 1971 motet Gaudet mater. The latter is almost pastiche, but undeniably charming.

Both pieces, and the opening Singe die Gärten (1974), are preferable to the Three Hymnic Dispositions (1985-6, including a small addition to the first made in 1997), which seem rather anonymous. However, the final item (and title track) of this new issue more than makes up for this. Frost Psalm (‘Frostsalme’, 1976) is a brilliant, overlapping setting of two original poems by Sarvig describing the progress of the year. If it does not use some of the extremes of vocal resource found in Wie ein Kind, it certainly covers a wide range of texture and technique. The Danish National Radio Choir’s performance is most compelling, captured in superb sound.