The Elora Festival Singers have already recorded discs for Naxos of English cathedral anthems and Arvo Pärt (see page 106), so one devoted to Canadian music is overdue. True, Healey Willan was English by birth, but after emigrating to Canada at the age of 33, he quickly became the leading light in Canadian church music. Hearing such sympathetic and perceptive performances of this small but representative cross-section of his vast output, it’s easy to see why.

From the majestic, nine-minute In the Heavenly Kingdom to a simple hymn-tune (St Osmond), Willan reveals a gift for writing appealing and perfectly proportioned music for a wide variety of choirs. The ghost of Stanford is evident not just in the obvious practicality of the music itself but in his use of established melodies as the basis for “hymn-anthems”. Basically undemanding, these nevertheless show real inventiveness; a characteristic which the Elora Festival Singers manage to emphasise without any hint of “singing down” to what is, at heart, technically undemanding music aimed at amateur choirs.

Ever attentive to detail, Noel Edison draws from his singers immaculate diction, beautifully moulded phrases and a real richness of tone, most superbly displayed in a luminous Sun of Righteousness and a wonderfully warm, glowing How they so softly rest. Joseph Schnurr is the gloriously resourceful and compelling tenor soloist in the dramatic I looked, and behold a white cloud, and here, as elsewhere, Matthew Larkin’s organ accompaniments are perfectly tailored. All in all a disc which, in both musical content and performance, makes a thoroughly welcome addition to the catalogue.