The folksongs of a nation are a fluid entity, constantly inviting re-casting and reinterpretation. Eleven examples from the English tradition feature in this new collection, each freshly arranged by composer Clive Osgood.

Polyphony and Stephen Layton provide luxury casting for the performances, and the choir immediately underlines its pedigree in the vernal clarity of the soprano line in ‘The Crystal Spring’, with a warmly blended mesh of lower-voice harmonies. In ‘Spanish Ladies’ the singers enthusiastically embrace the text’s injunction to ‘rant and roar like true British sailors’, and Osgood’s astute harmonic tweaks impart a near-unruliness as each mariner merrily imbibes ‘his full bumper’.

The altos and basses share the melody line (the well-known ‘Greensleeves’) in ‘What child is this?’, first in a group of three folk tunes which have been used for hymns or carols. Osgood’s eight-part setting is intricately woven, to the point where complex harmonies occasionally threaten to upstage the main melody. Polyphony’s tenors step forward in ‘An Upper Room’, their mellifluous tonal quality pleasingly counterpointed by a spot-on-tune hummed accompaniment.

For the five Songs from Three Counties, Polyphony is joined by the Britten Sinfonia, whose wind section add dashes of nautical colour to ‘The Privateer’. The addition of orchestration lifts Osgood’s settings to a new level of enjoyability, with ‘The Royal Oak’ especially evocative in its account of a skirmish between British and Turkish men-o’-war. The programme’s playing time is short, but the performances here undoubtedly give quality for your money.