As the 19th-century composer and Oriel alumnus Edmund Fellowes once noted, in his day his alma mater was ‘in no sense a musical college’. On the evidence of this recording, that situation has changed for the better, with 700-year-old Oriel joining the likes of nearby Merton and Queen’s in boasting a highly polished mixed-voice college choir.

With that notable anniversary in mind, director of music David Maw has put together an engaging programme that nods to significant figures and occasions in Oriel’s history. Earliest of these is the opening 13th-century O Maria, virgo pia sequence which, in circulation at the time of Oriel’s founding, here provides the basis for Judith Bingham’s 2015 setting of the Magnificat and Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s recent O Maria, virgo pia, written to mark, respectively, the 30th and 40th anniversaries of women being admitted to the college.

Alongside other contemporary pieces, Fellowes’s pleasingly melodious Victorian style is heard in his four-movement Hymn of the Third Choir for choir, organ and string quartet, while the 1958 setting of Psalm 150 by fellow Oriel graduate Herbert Chappell (of TV score fame) is a more ebullient, strident affair. Throughout, the choir’s warm, unshowy sound is beautifully balanced, the perfect foil to Grace Davidson’s immaculate solo line in the Bingham Magnificat.

And further credit, too, to David Maw for informative sleeve notes that provide a first-rate guide to exploring this album of largely unfamiliar music.