What an alluring release this is, and not only because the music is built around two beloved fairy tales, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (Brothers Grimm) and The Little Mermaid (Hans Christian Andersen). For ‘Once Upon a Time’, Matthew Guard, artistic director of Skylark Vocal Ensemble, and colleagues created a ‘choral story concert’ that merges texts from the tales with a cappella compositions that, although written for other purposes, deftly highlight the emotions and atmospheres in the unfolding narratives.

The repertoire is rich and diverse, ranging from pieces by celebrated composers (Poulenc, Vaughan Williams, Bernstein, Rautavaara) to an array of vibrant works by lesser-known figures closely associated with choral literature. Somehow, the assortment of styles never feels jarring, partly the result of evocative transitional passages composed by Benedict Sheehan that underline aspects of the texts, which storyteller Sarah Walker reads with fine clarity and nuanced character.

The two stories sound fresh as conceived along these choral lines, and the programme is an opportunity for the inspired singers of Skylark to introduce composers whose work deserves more attention, even without the trials and tribulations of Snow White and the Little Mermaid. Among them are Veljo Tormis, an Estonian who created a large body of eloquent works for chorus, and the Finnish composer Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, who is as comfortable in madcap mode (El Hambo, for example, depicting the dwarves) as he is in a cackling setting of Shakespeare’s ‘Double, double, toil and trouble’ used to portray Andersen’s sea witch.

The members of Skylark sing in half a dozen languages with elegant assurance, bringing colourful details into vivid focus. Whether the concept of the ‘choral story concert’ could be developed further remains to be explored. Skylark’s initial outing in the genre is destined to live happily ever after.