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Although Elgar's Gerontius could be an unlikely focus of Bennett's play The Choral, this work hardly requires a popularity boost. Gardner's vibrant latest recording is one of three released in the last two years, with another due in January.

Captured live at the 2022 BBC Proms, the energetic performance boasts a great deal going for it. Clayton portrays the febrile essence of the dying man whose each feeling is both a terror and a intrigue. Clayton's valiant voice thrills in the great hymn, Sanctus Fortis, while an expressive handling of text illuminates the thought-provoking question and answer session in the second part. Jamie Barton's rich voice has a palpable immediacy as well as providing plentiful resources of solace. James Platt's craggy bass voice is well-suited to the Angel of the Agony.

Gardner is intensely theatrical, conveying the narrative with an almost operatic audacity. The London Philharmonic performs as if a chorus of evil spirits was at its heels, paralleled by the combined forces of the London Philharmonic and Hallé choruses. In places, the acoustic robs the recording of the last bit of directness, but overall it's a excellent achievement to rank with Collon's arresting Finnish version issued in recent months.