Otto Nicolai (1810-49), a contemporary of Mendelssohn, is renowned for composing a delightful opera, Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, and for co-founding the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. He also unwittingly launched Verdi on his path to fame by refusing to set the libretto of Nabucco. But he was a church musician too, most of the pieces on this disc having been written for the choir of Berlin Cathedral.

There is an Italian cast to Nicolai’s music, the result of his spending several years in Rome. The buffo duet for Falstaff and Ford in The Merry Wives sounds just like Donizetti in translation. Here, however, the transalpine influence is more sober. Psalm 54, composed in 1834, includes neo-Palestrina counterpoint offset by a dance-like passage at ‘Ecce enim Deus’. Frieder Bernius delivers a vigorous performance, with forceful repetitions at ‘Quoniam ex omni tribulatione’ that seize the attention.

The other pieces date from the last few years of Nicolai’s short life. The musical content is, to be honest, not particularly distinctive, the most impressive feature being the sheer richness of the sound. The three short pieces from the Liturgie No 1 and the setting of Psalm 100 (the Jubilate) pit a quartet of soloists against a double four-part choir; the contrast in Psalms 31 and 84 is between eight soloists and eight-part choir, the antiphonal writing largely homophonic. The Stuttgart Chamber Choir sing with immaculate intonation and the recording is warm and clear. Anyone who responds to Mendelssohn’s a cappella pieces will find much to enjoy.