The pieces brought together on this album range widely, from ceremonial works associated with affairs of state to intimate compositions addressing moments of great personal significance. Two of the three pieces by Parry best exemplify this contrast: if I was glad – written for the coronation of Edward VII and premiered in chaotic circumstances – fits into the former category, ‘My soul, there is a country’ (from Songs of Farewell) – composed in the year of his death – belongs in the latter. 

The composers are similarly diverse. They include an English composer of Polish extraction (Panufnik), an Italian who spent most of his life in Paris (Rossini), an Irish and a German composer who, in their different ways, became leading lights in English music (Stanford and Mendelssohn). 

However, all the works recorded here have one thing in common: they are all considered quintessential to the Anglican choral tradition of yesterday and today.