Album: Imogen Holst Choral Works (Harmonia Mundi)

Though overshadowed by her father, Imogen Holst was thought highly enough of by heavyweight mentors: she was Britten's amanuensis for much of his later life, orchestrating his Rejoice In The Lamb: A Festival Cantata, appended to this world premiere recording of her own choral works by the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge.

Just 20, she displays confident and imaginative layering of voices, building to a satisfying "Agnus Dei". Elsewhere, harp accompaniment acts like a web supporting the voices in six Keats poems, Welcome Joy And Welcome Sorrow, and strings accompany her settings of three psalms, the most engrossing being Psalm 56, whose inner rhythms are underscored by the subtle string ostinatos pulsing beneath. 

Download: Psalm 56; O Sorrow; Agnus Dei