Choir Of St John's College, Cambridge - Walton: The Twelve, Coronation Te Deum & Missa Brevis (2002)

This latest addition to Naxos's English Church Music series isn't just a first-rate bargain but provides a distinctive alternative to the Finzi Singers in the Chandos Walton Edition, in its use of boy trebles. The presence of boys' voices consistently brings extra freshness to the St John's Choir's performances, giving them the sort of bite one can imagine the composer having in mind, with Waltonian syncopations wonderfully idiomatic in their crisp articulation.
Smaller in scale, with the organ set behind the choir, these more intimate readings also convey more clearly the impression of church performances, a clear advantage in the liturgical items above all, not just the delightful Missa brevis, but the Jubilate, and the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis.
You might argue that this collegiate choir is on the small side for the big ceremonial Te Deum written for the Queen's Coronation in 1953, but there, more than ever, the freshness and bite make for extra clarity hard to achieve with bigger forces. With Robinson and the St John's Choir the words aren't just sharply defined but are given life, with subtle rubato and fine shading of dynamic.