I bought this CD inspired by a British hymns concert I attended at Zürich Grossmünster; this concert was a selection, so there was no way to get the very same selection on a CD, but this release seemed like a great option. Overall it is good, but not so great as the selection at the concert. My guess about the chosen hymns on this release is they were selected because of their "religious" meaning, not musical qualities (I am not interested in the religious themes at all, but in their musical appeal).
On the other hand, the audio engineering is horrible. Using some decent audio equipment, a subtle hiss can be heard in most of the songs, and even some "leaps" (a quite noticeable one can be heard on the first seconds of the first track of the second CD). Not the thing one would expect of a Decca production.
I would have given 4 stars, but the audio encoding issues get the rating down.