This is a beautiful selection of Sviridov’s choral music. There is a subtlety to phrasing of the Latvian Radio Choir’s performance of the Trisagion (track 2, ‘Holy God’), for example, that often eludes Russian and Ukrainian choirs. And this serves them well too in the remarkable Having beheld a strange nativity, especially in the last movement, with its ‘increasing’ alleluias, and their mastery of dynamics means that they can bring it down to the quietest of pianissimos in nanoseconds.

The cycle on texts from the Old Testament is less familiar but has similarly outstanding moments – the second, ‘Sprinkle me with hyssop’, is particularly memorable in its alternation of male and female and choral groups – and in fact strikes me as one of the most likely works on this disc to enter the repertoire of Western choral ensembles. ‘Taynaya vechera’ might also do so, but here I come to my most serious reservation regarding this disc, which has nothing to do with the wonderful performances but everything to do with the disastrous translations in the booklet. It is simply not possible to translate ‘Paskha krasnaya’ as though it were modern Russian rather than Slavonic – ‘The Red Easter’ is not an adequate substitute for ‘Beautiful Easter’ and in this context carries quite the wrong connotations – and ‘All-Waving Mother’ as a translation of anything at all ought to have caught the attention of a copy-editor. As for ‘It is worth eating’ for the Marian hymn ‘Dostoyno est’, words fail me.

Do buy this disc, listen to the frequently wonderful music and the consistently astounding performances but recycle the booklet.