This Italian tenor has chosen a personal selection of sacred songs for his new album, many of which he learnt from the priests when he sang as a boy in the Sistine Chapel Choir. There are also arrangements of more familiar fare, such as Franck’s Panis angelicus and an original arrangement of Schubert’s Serenade by Offenbach, whose wind and brass scoring add piquant colouring to the well-known tune.

It appears that the recording was made in two different venues, a recording studio in Rome and the Wathen Hall of St Paul’s School in London. This package is nevertheless seamlessly produced in a warm acoustic with Grigolo’s honeyed voice placed to the fore, though not spotlit. There are solo contributions from violin, cello, flute and oboe in the Rome Sinfonietta, as well as organ accompaniments from the conductor Fabio Cerroni which add their own distinctive yet discreet colouring. The beautiful tone of the boys’ choir adds to the overall serenity of the programme, enlivened occasionally by a more dramatic interlude such as in the animated middle section of Niedermeyer’s Pietà, Signore!. There’s little change in the style of composition across two centuries of what one might term the school of Sistine composers, a point highlighted by the individuality of the fine tenor solo ‘Ingemisco’ from Verdi’s Requiem, beautifully sung by Grigolo, though without that personal identification with the text achieved by Pavarotti in his recording with Solti (Decca, 10/68). While respecting Grigolo’s committed approach to the task in hand and the sincerity of his interpretations, this is a recording that should be approached in small helpings, lest the air of the prayerful supplicant become too wearisome.