Perhaps it’s the recording location or the fact that this choir spends most of its time singing at monastic services, but there is no doubt that they tackle the famous ‘Baal’ choruses with signal lack of conviction. They clearly know that this False God, to whom they are supposed to be pleading for a miracle, will not come up with the goods. Even after Peter Lika – a superbly magisterial Elijah – spits back at them with such undisguised contempt that the orchestra are goaded into action, this choir knows they are flogging a dead horse.

Of course once Elijah has done his bit and the Real God performed the much asked-for miracle, the choir are full of joy and sing their hearts out. But this incident typifies this whole performance. Gone are the Old Testament blood-and-guts which have so inspired generations of enthusiastic choral singers, and in its place has come a more devout, meditative approach which is both calming and often very beautiful (listen to the octet ‘Denn er hat seinen Engeln befohlen’ or the divine quartet ‘Wirf dein Anliegen auf den Herrn’).

Although it was recorded live there is neither any evidence of an audience present nor any tangible sense of occasion in this performance, but there is a strong sense of being in a place of worship, not just in occasional glimpses of the monastery’s lavish acoustic but also in Jürgen Budday’s restrained direction, allowing his singers to relish the work’s more devout moments and never trying to force the pace. So we have some of the slowest tempi on disc, but only very occasionally – such as a very laboured ‘Fürchte dich nicht’ – uncomfortably so.

The choir clearly are at ease with Budday’s approach and produce a glorious luminosity in such reflective choruses as ‘Siehe, der Hüter Israels’. They may lack conviction in the fire-and-brimstone department, but a superb quartet of soloists more than compensates for any absence of choral drama. While Hans Peter Blochwitz’s Ahab might seem vocally fresh-faced (we expect our Old Testament Kings of Israel to be fusty old men; this one has more the of charisma of a David Beckham), they are all utterly convincing in their roles: Jolanta Michalska-Taliaferro is a magnificently wicked Queen as she spits out her venom against Elijah, while Heidi Elisabeth Meier could hardly be more angelic as she calmly exhorts Elijah to ‘Rest in the Lord’ (after his profoundly moving ‘Es ist genug’). Polished orchestral playing further enhances Budday’s interpretation of the work as a profound statement of Christian faith, while the recording is as flawless as one would expect from a state-of-the-art studio, let alone a 12th-century monastery. No texts or translations are included with the disc but a German-only libretto is available on the K&K website.