There’s a distinctly vocal feel to my top picks on disc this month, starting with our April Recording of the Month. I can’t remember when we last featured a practising church choir in the top slot, but this latest from the Choir of Westminster Abbey under Music Director James O’Donnell is a remarkable achievement (Hyperion CDA68350).

On the Record

Over the last decade the choir has released a series of outstanding recordings and this exhilarating program of 21st-century church music shows them at their very best. “Scene of countless coronations, royal weddings, state funerals and other national commemorations, Westminster Abbey stands as a monument to the longstanding and relatively unbroken tradition of worship and music that has taken place on its site since the tenth century,” writes Tony Way by way of preamble to this album of music by three of the UK’s leading choral composers: Jonathan Dove, Judith Weir and Matthew Martin. Many of these works were commissioned by the Abbey, adding to the authoritative nature of these spirited accounts. “Dove’s Missa Brevis is given a powerful performance, the Gloria in particular crackling with energy...