…the effortless quality of the RIAS Kammerchor's sound, transparent, high-soaring, imbues this naïve repertoire with a real sense of joy…

But how delightful! Here come Herr Mendelssohn and his choir, walking across the fields making directly for our neck of the woods where we are about to enjoy our own déjeuner sur l'herbe. Certainly Mendelssohn liked to take his singers out into the country and particularly to the woods, the 'temple of harmony' as one of his part-songs has it. And if they sang Mendelssohn's pleasant compositions as beautifully as the RIAS choir sing them here, how welcome they would be. Even Wordsworth, listening to the 'still, sad music of humanity', might not have been too put out; for these, on the whole, are Wordsworthian poems, and the settings, however trim and cultivated, are closer to Wordsworth's Nature than to the world of business and 'greetings where no kindness is'.
They are, in fact, kindly works, kindly on the ear and on the voices. Essentially homophonic in their writing for unaccompanied choir, they never leave the individual parts without interest, whether a point of harmony, an imitative phrase or a solo lead. Within the equable sameness of the manner there are many variations and shades of expression. The RIAS Chamber Choir, with their irreproachable homogeneity of tone and flawless intonation, are alive to all the finer points of phrasing and coloration.

The RIAS Chamber Choir, with their irreproachable homogeneity of tone and flawless intonation, are alive to all the finer points of phrasing and coloration. These part-songs, to be sung "im Freien", or in the open air, make a refreshing programme, and certainly they could not be better performed.