I found this a very lovely and a quite satisfying recital, though it’s possible that for other tastes, and maybe other moods, it would seem too soft-centred. One of the outstanding features of this choir is its blend, and a blend can be bland. One of its virtues is perfect smoothness, and “smooth” easily turns into a pejorative term, as when used of suspect persons. I came to the disc via one of St John’s, Cambridge, played as a preliminary reminder of the Requiem of Herbert Howells, and there the texture of the choral parts has more differentiation, more sharpness. The perfect, and perfectly lovely, unity of Conspirare’s choral tone was not entirely welcome. It’s slightly as though they’re equipped with mutes, which remain in use even when the volume swells to fortissimo. But they’re not bland: their care for words and expression guards against that, as does their alertness to changes of mood, whether by movement or modulation. There is a constant assurance of intelligent direction.

And it’s not unreasonable to expect and find rest in a programme called “Requiem”: tenderness too, especially when dedicated by sponsors to the memory of named individuals. Howell’s Requiem is inescapably personal, felt most movingly in the wonderfully imagined radiance of the two settings of “et lux perpetua”. Pizzetti’s Requiem Mass (1922-24) is a major work centring on a remarkable Dies irae. The shorter pieces, all American as is the choir, are appealing and I dare say will be new to most of us this side of the Atlantic.