The challenge to the performers in much of Bob Chilcott’s music is to make it sound warm, expressive and purposeful without it ending up like bland musical wallpaper or overly zealous displays of basic choral singing techniques. These challenges this Polish choir meets with great assurance; and while the programme does tend more to the easy listening than the intellectually challenging, the singers add just enough spice to keep it all moving with a clear but unhurried sense of direction. Perhaps the recording might have allowed a little more weight to be given to what are clearly fine, resonant basses, but in general the sound from the choir is well captured.

Chilcott’s music is understandably popular with choirs, and while he adheres to a directly accessible style with much emphasis on consonant chords, he has the skill to make everything just that little bit intriguing through an odd harmonic twist here or an unexpected melodic turn there. With a Polish choir inhabiting territory which is usually the preserve of those whose first language is English, there is a subtle shift in focus away from expressing the words to illuminating them through subtle nuances of colour and dynamic. Gentle pastel shades rather than broad primary colours is the order of the day, and under Chilcott’s own direction, they are clearly very much at ease with this music.

Occasional instrumental interjections (there is a soppy piano and a soprano saxophone in The Shepherds sing which, frankly, I find irritating), as well as gracefully projected solo voices (Ewa Wojtowicz is a deliciously heart-warming alto in the deeply lovely Lulajz˙e, Jezuniu), add different colours to the disc but overall this is a choir whose sound is too richly enticing to need anything more than pleasing music and a sympathetic recording, both of which are much in abundance on this disc.