This is a truly important release, all premiere recordings of works composed between 2014 and 2019 by a master craftsman. Although Philip Wilby (b1949) might be best known for his large output for brass band, he has also composed extensively for the Christian liturgy. Like his fellow native of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Kenneth Leighton, Wilby brings a vividly dramatic purpose to his word-setting, ensuring that every nuance is communicated clearly.

The major work here is his English Passion According to Saint Matthew, composed in 2018 for Matthew Owens and the choir of Wells Cathedral. Now translated across the Irish Sea, Owens’s Belfast forces do a magnificent job, aided by a first-class team of soloists and sensitive organ accompaniments. Five of Vaughan Williams’s folk-song hymns (taken from The English Hymnal) provide a strong structural framework, in particular that associated with the words ‘This is the truth sent from above’, which RVW employed so poignantly in his Fantasia on Christmas Carols. I particularly appreciated the daring reharmonisations, and how seamlessly the various scenes and moods transition.

Tenor Thomas Elwin is outstanding in his portrayal of Jesus, almost overpoweringly lyrical and impassioned. The words of the Evangelist are shared among the other four soloists, all of whom are wholeheartedly ‘involved’. Additional colour and theatrical power are provided by the superb 16-strong cathedral choir. Their unaccompanied version of the fourth hymn, ‘When I survey the wondrous Cross’, is a major highlight within an already strong piece.

One cannot help being drawn into the narrative as it moves to its calamitous conclusion. The contrast between the anger of the Barabbas Scene and the subsequent tragedy of the gathering at Golgotha is superbly judged. Plaudits, too, for the organists: Jack Wilson at the cathedral’s main instrument (a sonic treat in its own right) and David Leigh at the chamber organ.

The other works on this album are no mere makeweights. The evening canticles of The Knaresborough Service have probably never sounded better and the opening setting of Hopkins’s ‘God’s Grandeur’ is just as effective and memorable as those by Rubbra, Barber and Bliss. With the composer present at the recording sessions, this can confidently said to be an authoritative account.