Readers may have attended a memorable account of Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto for Choir at London’s Union Chapel in 1989, the composer emerging unexpectedly to a standing ovation. Written five years before, it is his most explicit instance of rapprochement with an Orthodoxy the then recent convert to Catholicism fully embraced only months before his death in 1998.

The work started out with what became its third movement and Schnittke duly extended it in both directions with further extracts from the Book of Lamentations by 10th-century mystic Gregory of Narek. The first movement is a hymn of praise that unfolds in waves of sound, its methodical setting in rhythmic unison offset by complex harmonies and heightened melisma. Next the author addresses humanity in all its goodness or evilness, in the hope that his words provide solace. This is followed by the most intense music, the author imagining his book as a bridge reaching across the gulf of unbelief to salvation. Its striving builds to a final section whose anguish is allayed with the desire, albeit tenuous, that his book might secure divine assent.

Schnittke’s Concerto is among his most-recorded works, this latest version from the SWR Vocal Ensemble and Principal Conductor Yuval Weinberg closer in tonal accuracy and textural clarity to that by Kaspars Putniņš than the pioneering account by Valery Polyansky. The couplings are wholly apposite. Evidently a troubled figure, Artemy Vedel sets lines from Psalm 137 whose emotional inwardness and effective alternation of chamber with full forces find contrast with those from Psalm 39 by Dmitry Bortnyansky. Here it is a madrigal-like fluidity and elegance that comes through most readily, testifying to his success in imbuing Slavonic fervency with that Italianate deftness which proved influential yet controversial on subsequent generations.

These latter pieces can be found on an excellent anthology directed by Paul Hillier, but those wanting the Schnittke cannot go wrong with this release. Recorded with unfailing definition, it is merely the latest instance of this ensemble’s ability in choral music ancient and modern.