If Edward Gardner’s performances and recording of Peter Grimes had not already firmly established his credentials as an outstanding Britten conductor, then this collection, taken from Gardner’s concerts with the London Philharmonic at the Festival Hall in London and at Saffron Hall in Saffron Walden, superbly confirms them. It contains an outstanding account of one Britten’s greatest orchestral achievements, the Sinfonia da Requiem, and a fine one of a suite (Gardner’s own selection) from Britten’s only full-length ballet, The Prince of the Pagodas, together with the first recording of a fascinating orchestration by Robin Holloway of Britten’s Thomas Hardy song cycle Winter Words.

In a note on his orchestrations, Holloway declares that Winter Words is his favourite among Britten’s song cycles and that Britten and Hardy “seem made for each other”. But in its general tone and subject matter – nature, the changing seasons, and man’s place among them – and Britten’s treatment of them there’s an introspection and intimacy, which doesn’t automatically suggest the large scale “public” exposure of an orchestral song cycle. But Holloway’s interventions are wonderfully discreet and subtly imaginative, especially in his use of the marimba and xylophone, and tenor Nicky Spence’s careful performance certainly respects that.

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