The second instalment in Robert King's complete Purcell church music project offers four rarely heard string-accompanied verse anthems setting psalm texts, together with the relatively well-known Te Deum and Jubilate Deo which the composer produced in place of an ode for St Cecilia's Day in 1694. As with Volume 1, the disc thus spans almost the entire chronological range of Purcell's output for the church, since in the joyful Behold now, praise the Lord we have a work dating from the composer's late teens (though already unmistakable in its authorship, not least in the ambiguity of mood created by its unusually wistful opening symphony). As might be expected, there are many fine musical moments: My song shall be alway is a lengthy and resourcefully theatrical piece, written for the bass John Gostling; I will give thanks unto Thee, O Lord is a largish-scale anthem containing another splendid bass solo; and Blessed are they that fear the Lord is a gentle work possibly written to celebrate the pregnancy of James II's queen in 1688 (in which case, if the music be any guide, the event seems to have been greeted with somewhat half-hearted jubilation!). At the same time, however, it is fair to say that Purcell's genius is not at its most consistent here, and that in general the music on this disc tends towards a certain disjointedness of construction—the worst offender, indeed, being the stop-start Te Deum.
King's performances cannot really do much about this, but as usual he has assembled a strong line-up of singers: James Bowman is splendidly expressive in the ''Vouchsafe, O Lord'' section of the Jubilate Deo; Rogers Covey-Crump's light, incisive voice, though not granted any real limelight, is well-suited to this music; and Michael George is rock solid in his big solos, which range well over two octaves (though I thought the balance between his voice, sensibly recorded at a distance to allow it to fill the acoustic, and the much more closely miked continuo was an ill-matched one). The Choir of New College, Oxford, with its slightly dark, though nevertheless full-throated sound, makes effective contributions (for instance at their entry towards the end of Behold now), and produces treble soloists of its own of commendable confidence and sensitivity. The rise of more agile professional mixed chamber choirs in the last decade has tended to edge out all-male choirs on record, even in music that was written expressly with them in mind; what a pleasure it is, then, to hear one sounding so unquestionably right for the job as this choir does here!'