The rainforest tape that opens this remarkable disc might seem a Brazilian cliché – and in a sense it is. But it is a significant one, forming part of Henrique de Curitiba’s Metaphors (1973), a work whose choral component (and thematic material) is the ‘Et incarnatus est’ from the Credo of Victoria’s Missa Quarti toni, exploiting astoundingly high soprano-writing, sung with bell-like clarity here by Billie Robinson and Emily Kay. The ear-catching tape is in fact a reconstruction (the original is lost), part of an adventurous collaboration between the Choir of Gonville & Caius and the choral department of the University of São Paulo.

Brazilian choral music, even that by Villa-Lobos, is hardly well known outside its native country, so this is an important and revelatory disc. Curitiba’s arresting work is followed by a much more conventional set of folksong arrangements by Ernst Mahle, and Osvaldo Lacerda’s setting of Carlos Drummond de Andrade’s poem ‘Romaria’, which includes recitation of sections of the text. Pinto Fonseca’s Jubiabá is an evocation of a candomblé ceremony, forming a Brazilian contrast with the Latin Christian texts of both Ernani Aguiar’s Antiquae preces christianae and Villa-Lobos’s Cor dulce, cor amabile and Magnificat-Alleluia (majestically performed here in the composer’s own arrangement with organ), while Aylton Escobar brings folk and church culture together in his striking Missa breve on Brazilian folk rhythms.

The most remarkable pieces here are Curitiba’s Metaphors and the stunning Portuguese-texted Ave-Maria by Cláudio Santoro, but all of the music is worth hearing. Much of it is technically demanding but, under Geoffrey Webber’s clearly inspired direction, the Caius Choir sound as though they have known this music intimately for years.