What a treat this is! Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, 74 years young, continues to delight audiences the world over with his multifarious talents. A distinguished composer for the concert hall, opera house, jazz lounge and silver screen, accomplished pianist and engaging crooner, he also possesses a very special gift for word-setting, if this addictive anthology is anything to go by.

Nuggets abound in NMC’s well made selection. The opener, A Garland for Marjory Fleming (1969), sets the bar high: these five settings of extraordinarily touching verse by a Kirkcaldy schoolgirl (who died in 1811 aged just eight) combine enchanting innocence, wicked wit and heaps of communicative charm. The work’s dedicatee, Scottish soprano Sasha Adams, was also the lucky recipient of the gorgeous Dream-Songs (1986), where Bennett’s ravishingly lyrical inspiration fits Walter de la Mare’s lines like a glove, and it’s preceded here by the scarcely less lovable Songs Before Sleep (written for Jonathan Lemalu in 2002), which likewise amply demonstrates Bennett’s happy knack of plucking out of the ether a tune you seem to have known all along. Other high-spots include the slinky A History of the Thé dansant (1994) and its darker counterpart, “Voyage” (2003), while Bennett the youthful serialist is represented by his riveting monologue “Tom O’Bedlam’s Song” (1961) for tenor and cello (of which Peter Pears was the dedicatee). “A Song at Evening” (another de la Mare setting, from 2009) brings the disc to a seraphic close.

Performances throughout are without blemish – and a special word of praise for the supple and intuitive accompaniments by Iain Burnside (who also pens an eloquent appraisal of the composer’s art in the booklet). Add in Bayan Northcott’s fastidious notes, full texts and Jeremy Hayes’s irreproachable production values, and you have another NMC gem to snap up without any further ado.