No, of course we don’t need another recording of choral music by Arvo Pärt. Or so one might have thought: hearing this particular album practically guarantees a change of mind in this respect. The first thing to strike the listener is the creamily rich choral sound, which, while absolutely not lacking in precision, adds an extra dimension in works such as the opening Which was the son of … that some other outstanding ensembles, even when seasoned interpreters of the composer’s work, cannot match.

Neither is this all. Interspersed between the choral pieces are instrumental works all too easily overlooked: the impact of Sequentia and Festina lente in this context is quite different from that made when heard as part of a purely instrumental sequence, and the wonderful resonance of the orchestra’s sound is captured magnificently here. That most of these performances were recorded in the circumstances of the current pandemic seems to lend them an increased relevance and urgency.

But the centre of the recording is the Miserere, a work I have long thought deserving of more attention both in concert and in the recording studio. Its time-defying implorations for mercy are brutally cut through by verses from the ‘Dies irae’, and it is in many respects a surprising piece if one is unfamiliar with the composer’s earlier, pre-‘tintinnabuli’ music. There is of course the classic recording by the Hilliard Ensemble (ECM, 1/92), but any admirer of the work will be keen to have this new version, so immediate is its impact and so impressive its sonic depth. It is also in many respects a piece that confronts, so to speak, Pärt past with Pärt present, and in so doing demonstrates the unity and consistency of his musical thinking through the decades.

I have but one complaint about this recording: it is staggeringly under-documented. The booklet has plenty of room for information about the pieces themselves, and performances of such high quality as these I would have thought guaranteed to arouse the listener’s curiosity.