Yet here is no cardboard cut-out of a composer. His time studying with Shostakovich at the Leningrad Conservatory from 1936 to 1941 made a deep impression. In 1979, when Testimony, Shostakovich’s supposed memoirs, were published, Sviridov refused to join a party-led denunciation. Although dutifully supporting an idealistic view of the motherland’s past glories and the exaltation of Slavic culture, Orthodox spirituality clearly became increasingly important to him. By the end of his life, with the USSR dissolved, he was hailed as a “great national master” by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.

Canticles and Prayers is Sviridov’s last completed work and is a succession of settings of liturgical texts and psalms for unaccompanied chorus composed between 1980 and 1997, grouped into five sections. This recording gives a reduced version in four parts, concluding with an additional piece, The Red Easter.

While Sviridov’s choral style is firmly rooted in traditional Russian Orthodox chant, it is enriched with a romantic sensibility that delights with rich harmonies and textures. This intriguing take on Russian choral music employs all sorts of compositional techniques, especially contrasts of spacing and dynamics. Various forms of repetition are also effective.

Under Sigvards Klava’s direction, the Latvian Radio Choir delivers appropriately plush performances, aided by the generous acoustic of St John’s Church, Riga. At the centre of the work is a movement entitled Repentance of the Prodigal Son. Here the composer’s harmonic vacillations mirror the excesses of the wayward son. Some beautifully soft singing signals his repentance. Elsewhere, the choir’s tuttis occasionally seem a little overdone, but the abiding impression is of disciplined technique married to genuine emotional commitment.

Sviridov’s unique style is well served by these appealing performances.