Celebrating his 60th birthday, the choir of King’s College Cambridge offer this coupling of two of John Rutter’s most celebratory works. In the version with reduced orchestra recorded here, the Magnificat inhabits somewhat ambiguous territory between church and concert hall, but the King’s College Choir are in their element, their long tradition of service singing evident in the intimate ‘Et misericordia’, the solo treble singing with divine innocence above a most delicious orchestral accompaniment, while their concert experience comes to the fore in the dramatic ‘Fecit potentiam’. Here Stephen Cleobury’s powerful rhythmic drive creates a rare moment of spine-tingling excitement, the menacing organ and side drum duet (at 1’37”) magnificently captured in EMI’s vivid recording.

It’s probably just as well that the orchestral forces are pared down for the Magnificat as, faced with a veritable barrage from the CBSO, it’s obvious that the choir has a battle on its hands with the Gloria: and, judging from the final climactic ‘Amen’, it’s not one from which they emerge victorious. Signs of strain may also be due to Rutter’s unrelievedly jolly music, which hardly ever ventures towards dissonance or minor tonality; it must be hard for even the most eager choirboy to keep smiling for 18 minutes. Stephen Layton’s Polyphony do it far better, although they, too, have problems balancing with the orchestra. Best of all, of course, are Rutter’s own Cambridge Singers who are so thoroughly imbued in their director’s music that it all comes as second nature.

As icing on this birthday cake, we have a boisterous setting of Psalm 150, the ‘Laudate Dominum’ wandering dangerously close to the packet of saccharine. Luckily the piece’s unashamed Waltonian leanings prevent any sweetness from becoming too cloying and, in the end, nothing mars the disc’s celebratory mood.