The Choir of Christ Church could hardly have made a more ambitious return to recording after their valuable but variable series of Nimbus discs. Taverner’s Mass is the chef d’oeuvre of the greatest composer of his time, yet it has never before been recorded by the kind of liturgical choir which he had in mind; this is a courageous and significant act of reclamation. Courageous, because Taverner’s demands of phrase and melodic continuity are more subtle, but no less daunting in their own way, than those presented by Palestrina and Gombert. Performing at written pitch helps; The Sixteen are a semitone up, the Tallis Scholars follow David Wulstan’s lead and sing a full third higher.

Those familiar with the Nimbus Taverner disc (10/93) will know that Stephen Darlington and his choir aren’t afraid of a few dirty edges around the sound; this is a world away from the hygienic surfaces of the Gabrieli Consort on their new DG disc; also from the shapely halo of King’s, Cambridge. The Christ Church trebles have a full-frontal attack to a phrase that is more commonly heard from middle-European choirs. That makes it more susceptible to the glare of the microphone, but the recording itself (produced by Jonathan Freeman-Attwood) dares to go in closer than Nimbus ever did. The risk largely pays off in tutti passages of startling immediacy, contrasted with more solo verse sections than is usual (to rest tired voices?). Some distended cadences leave you wondering whether they can possibly have the puff to sustain them. Sometimes they can’t (at the end of the first paragraph of the Sanctus); often they can (the “Hosanna” at the end of the famous Benedictus). Both professional ensembles achieve seamless continuity by sleight of voice such as “Sanctu” and “Dominu” (sic), not to mention “Leni sunt eli” (can you guess what it is yet?) from The Sixteen. Christ Church’s punchy consonants are more risky but ultimately truer to the music. The motets are no less individual in concept and execution, including a cheeky but winning slide at 2'22" in Mater Christi; like the rest of the disc it will divide opinion, but it demands to be taken seriously.