For the Choir of Merton College, Oxford’s first collaboration with Britten Sinfonia, Benjamin Nicholas has brought together a collection of sacred works from the first half of the twentieth century.A little-known fact is that these stalwarts of the English repertory were either originally intended to be heard with orchestra, or subsequently orchestrated by their composer or a close colleague.

Written for enthronements, coronations and the nation’s grandest choral festivals, these national ‘standards’ arehere brought back to life, their orchestral accompaniments affording them the richness, pomp and majesty associated with that epoch.