Apart from the fact that this is simply heavenly singing and the music absolutely divine, there seems no earthly reason why the Netherlands Chamber Choir have given us Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli twice on this disc; both versions recorded at the same session. First they juxtapose it with four sacred a cappella pieces by Pärt and, assuming we are incapable of reprogramming our players, do the whole thing again without the intervening tracks.

On the grounds that you can’t have too much of a good thing, I find no cause for complaint at this opportunity to hear the Palestrina twice in one sitting. Certainly Risto Joost lets the music unfold with sumptuous expansiveness, the polyphonic lines gracefully revealing themselves in Globe’s opulent recording made in Amsterdam’s Waalse Kerk. The singers, all 20 of them, produce a rich and wonderfully balanced sound, marvellous depth in the basses and a delectable fluidity in the sopranos. Truly this is a choir of great distinction.

The logic of interpolating the Pärt pieces is fully explained in a nicely designed booklet but I have to confess that when we first move from the Palestrina Kyrie to The Woman with the Alabaster Box, settings of words from Matthew’s Gospel concerning the disciples’ anger at the apparent profligacy of a woman who poured expensive ointment over Christ’s feet only to experience themselves the gentle rebuke of Christ, one wonders whether it was such a good idea; it seems almost as if Pärt is offering up a very pale imitation of Palestrina. But as the piece expands and those magical Pärtisms emerge, it all begins to make sense and, while it neither adds to nor subtracts from the inherent beauty of the Palestrina, given these exceptional performances, the disc certainly adds a new dimension to this oft-recorded staple of the repertory.