Nimbus’s latest George Benjamin disc has no unrecorded works but does make a rounded and absorbing programme. Good to have a second version of Into the Little Hill (2006), the ‘lyric tale’ that was his first opera and whose darkly ironic take on the Pied Piper legend is more topical than a decade ago. The earlier account has more subtly complemented singers, but Hila Plitmann and Susan Bickley evince drama and intimacy aplenty in their multiple roles and Benjamin draws a superfine response from the London Sinfonietta in fastidious scoring (basset-horns and cornets prominent) that greatly enhances the mesmeric aura.

Less a song-cycle than a scena, Dream of the Song (2015) juxtaposes verse by 11th-century Spanish poets sung (in English) by countertenor with extracts by Lorca sung (in Spanish) by female chorus: this contrast in medium is paralleled by an orchestration where two oboes and four horns are joined by strings and percussion. The piece unfolds as an intensifying arch in which the chorus’s distanced entry builds to the climactic fourth section, before taking on a new-found repose in the eloquent then ecstatic final sections. Bejun Mehta is as restrained yet as ardent as the music requires, with the Dutch musicians responsive to Benjamin’s direction.

This reading has also been issued on an anthology in the Concertgebouw’s Horizon series but was worth including in this collection. Rounded off by Flight (1979), a homage to Debussy and Varèse ethereally played by Michael Cox, this is a welcome addition to the Benjamin discography in anticipation of his new stage work for the Royal Opera next year.