A master miniaturist, Peter Warlock is at his best in the songs – both solo and choral – that make up the largest part of his output. So much depends on the tiniest of melodic variations, harmonic glances or the shifting balance of voices, and it’s a brave choir that undertakes to paint with such meticulous sonic brushstrokes. Now on their third recording (and their first digital-only release), the young professionals of Hilary Campbell’s Blossom Street chamber choir have a growing reputation. Unfortunately there’s little here to match the excellence of last year’s ‘Down by the Sea’ (Naxos, A/13).

The problems start with St James’s Church, Sussex Gardens – a venue far too boomingly resonant for this delicate material. The rhetorical brilliance of Benedicamus Domino or Yarmouth Fair gets lost in echoes, and Campbell seems unwilling to adjust the scope of her gestures and tempi to match the space. The opener, As dew in Aprylle, feels rushed rather than impetuous, while Webster’s dense text for The Shrouding of the Duchess of Malfi is lost almost entirely in the acoustic. Enunciation is a particular issue for a recording whose booklet omits the texts for all copyright material, leaving listeners guessing for a good six tracks.

Seven world premiere recordings provide the central interest here – mostly recent arrangements of Warlock’s solo songs for choral forces. The charming My Own Country works beautifully in four-part, Stanford-esque homophony, while The Night is mossy-soft with cluster-chords – a rival for the harmonic drama of Warlock’s early experiment The Full Heart.

Only in the final track, Bethlehem Down – a choral shibboleth if ever there was one – do Blossom Street find the blended intensity and control that this music demands. They can do it, so why they choose not to for so much of this disc is a mystery.