This well filled conspectus was made last year, Dame Elizabeth Maconchy’s centenary year. Her compositions, never less than civilised, prove more varied than one might have expected. There is plenty to sustain and divert, though not perhaps to thrill. Some of Maconchy’s music resembles fined-down Holst but an awareness of continental moderns is a constant, with a Britten-ish tinge to the word-setting, not least in the opening anthology, Creatures (1979).

No choral specialist at the start, Maconchy later responded to all manner of commissions, setting poetry ancient and modern. The wit and point of the lighter fare seem somewhat lost in the acoustic of St Paul’s, Knightsbridge. Elsewhere the resonance suits just fine. Sample the evocative “Sirens’ Song” (1974), recalling VW in “Full fathom five” mode while going further harmonically. As her composer daughter, Nicola LeFanu, writes in a helpful booklet-note: “The men’s voices are the hapless sailors, the high voices the sirens, whose gently spiralling melodies continue to haunt us…”

“A Hymn to God the Father” (1931) is a remarkable student essay revealing Maconchy as potential heir to the Tudor polyphonists. Simpler pieces with piano are different again, demonstrating her Irish republican and communist sympathies in items for the Workers’ Music Association. Despite the championship of Odaline de la Martinez and the expertise of the vocal ensemble, I suspect that a less vibrato-rich group, further forward in the balance, might have made a greater impact. This is repertoire which for all its fascination tends to lack melodic distinction. That said, all credit to Lorelt for producing an attractive package with full texts. A CD of orchestral works is planned.