King's 'super-group' featuring choristers drawn from seven English cathedral and collegiate choirs sounds better than ever – technically reliable, with a good, full sound – and are a credit to King's vision in bringing them together. This volume has five typically uplifting works, three of which – Lauda Jerusalem, Dixit Dominus and the G minor Kyrie – offer the opulent sound of double choir and orchestra. Dixit Dominus is the most substantial, a colourful 23-minute sequence of varied solos and choruses, with trumpets, oboes and two organs all chipping in, most notably in an awe-inspiring depiction of the Day of Judgement. The other two are perhaps less striking, though Lauda Jerusalem is certainly charming in its two-soprano interchanges.
Highlights of the single-chorus works include another exquisite soprano duet and a fiery 'Fecit potentiam' in the Magnificat, and an extraordinary 'Crucifixus' in the Credo which departs from the pain-wracked norm by seemingly depicting with lugubrious slow tread Christ's walk to Calvary. King manages very well in capturing the essence of Vivaldi's bold, sometimes disarmingly straightforward style. These tidy performances are driven with just the right amount of springy energy – neither too much nor too little – and are well recorded in the warm resonance of St Jude's Church, Hampstead in London.