The LSO certainly play well and the brass in the Dies irae are especially thrilling. As for the tam-tam in Be slowly lifted up it’s allowed to sound and resonate to great effect. Its ever-slowing tread and Cvilak’s perfectly scaled delivery are simply superb. All else pales next to Bostridge’s deeply moving, extraordinarily nuanced singing in Futility. Time stands still here, and I can’t recall a finer account of Owen’s sad supplication than this, either on record or in the concert hall. It’s also a measure of Britten’s genius that this music never loses its power to astound. The simplest means are used to convey the most complex of human emotions.

The LSO chorus deserve a mention in dispatches. Their quiet singing in Pie Jesu is ineffably beautiful. There are no problems at the other end of the dynamic spectrum either. The muscular drum thwacks and deep-throated brass in Sed signifer sanctus are very well caught. Bostridge and Keenlyside’s Parable of the Young Man and the Old is exquisitely done. The gorgeous harp and well-matched singers meld into another of those heart-stopping epiphanies that seem to be a Britten speciality. Gerald Finley and Anthony Dean Griffey blend well for Masur, whose live account also has a dramatic intensity and seamlessness that’s very impressive indeed.

The Sanctus, with its strange instrumental crescendi and angelus-like orchestral/vocal swings, is certainly powerful. Once again Keenlyside sings most feelingly—yet without a hint of false sentiment—in The End. As for Noseda one has to applaud him for maintaining such a tight ensemble and for responding so sympathetically to his soloists.

It just gets better. The instrumental/vocal rise and fall of the Agnus Dei is as haunting as one could wish. The dry, metallic rumble of timps in the Libera me is very effective too, adding its own garish hue to this hellish scene. Indeed, I’ve rarely heard such a myriad of colours and textures as revealed by this fine recording. If Culshaw and his team excelled at the broad brush, the LSO Live engineers are masters of telling detail. That said, the climactic moments of the Libera me are unleashed with an unbridled energy that will take your breath away.

After that Bostridge and Keenlyside’s account of Strange Meeting is indescribably moving. It’s another of those moments when nothing else could possibly matter but the focused horror of this imagined, subterranean encounter. Not surprisingly tmore....