Despite being widely performed since its publication in 2010, the chamber-scaled arrangement of the Requiem by the flautist Johannes Linckelmann has not so far attracted any recordings. Iain Farrington’s new version scores a significant practical advantage over Linckelmann through the omission of a horn – not always easy to come by for choral societies – and the inclusion of a piano, played here so sensitively by Wei-Yi Yang that the harp part is uncannily evoked, lending both necessary weight to the bass and the colour of memory which belongs to the harp whenever Brahms uses it (not only here but in the Op 17 choral songs, for example).

A recording of Farrington’s arrangement will doubtless prove invaluable for amateur singers learning their parts for a concert, especially one so sumptuously engineered. Does it otherwise present new appeal when competing with the composer’s original versions, scored both for orchestra and for two pianos? Much of the choral work is as hushed and haunting as any on disc. David Hill’s instincts are sound, especially in the Requiem’s outer pillars and its keystone, ‘How lovely are thy dwellings’.

Where the Requiem tells a story of penitence, terror, light and at length triumph, in its third and sixth movements, a diminution in weight and tension is palpable and perhaps inevitable. Drawn from the ranks of the choir, the soloists each sound under pressure to sing out, and Natasha Schnur breaks her first line even at Hill’s flowing tempo. For all its gentle, musicianly virtues, this is not an account to compete with recent keenly text-centred recordings made by Yannick Nézet-Séguin (LPO, 8/10) and Roger Norrington (Hänssler, 6/15), which should satisfy most listeners however conservative or iconoclastic their inclination.