The London Symphony Orchestra’s concert performances of The Turn of the Screw in April last year sadly turned into a tribute to Sir Colin Davis, who died a few days earlier. The orchestra’s former principal conductor had been scheduled to leave us a live recording to go alongside his earlier Philips set of the opera (1/84, 9/96), originally intended as a film soundtrack. Instead, Richard Farnes, music director of Opera North, took his place and led a performance with many strengths, even if it all felt rather lost in the wide, open space of the Barbican concert hall.

LSO Live’s recording captures the occasion truthfully: there is much to admire, especially in the virtuoso playing of the LSO musicians, but the drama seems underplayed and rather remote. Farnes conducts a sometimes slowish performance, imbued with an atmosphere of spectral mystery (listen to the subtle shadows in the opening to Act 2, especially the haunting pair of violins). Sally Matthews is a comparably subtle Governess, who colours her singing with many shades of anxiety, but only about half her words are audible. A combination of her covered vowels and slightly backward placing means intelligibility suffers. Still, this is a good cast in an opera that rarely gets a poor performance. Catherine Wyn-Rogers makes a warm-voiced Mrs Grose; Andrew Kennedy is an expressive Quint, especially imaginative in the Prologue; and Katherine Broderick a slightly wild Miss Jessel, reasonably enough. As the two children, Michael Clayton-Jolly’s Miles and Lucy Hall’s bright Flora are more than adequate, though her stronger voice makes more impact. Helpfully, the booklet includes the full libretto.

In a competitive field this would not be my first choice. Glyndebourne’s live stage production places the singers, if anything, further away but has more theatrical tension. Among modern studio recordings, Daniel Harding on Virgin, with Joan Rodgers and Ian Bostridge, is a strong recommendation. Britten’s own recording, dating from 1955, is unlike any other, an intense piece of story-telling, swift and taut, with the singers balanced so close that they bring the drama right into your living-room – ghosts, shivers down the back, and all.