Already available separately as a digital-only EP, Andrew Manze’s RLPO account of Vaughan Williams’s towering Job: A Masque for Dancing now receives a physical release with new couplings. Scrupulously prepared and boasting some superbly coordinated, infectiously dedicated playing from the RLPO, it’s a thoroughly absorbing interpretation which in its unhurried, intelligent and watchful demeanour perhaps most resembles Mark Elder’s Hallé account (2/21) as well as Richard Hickox’s under-the-radar Bournemouth SO version (EMI, 7/92).

Right from the outset, there’s an ear‑pricking clarity about the harmonic writing for the lower strings, and textures are probed with engrossing skill. Having been raised on Boult and Handley in this music, I prefer the glorious ‘Sarabande of the Sons of the Morning’ to move on fractionally more than it does here (the marking is, after all, Andante con moto), whereas ‘Satan’s Dance of Triumph’ swaggers with exactly the right gleeful malice (though I’m straining to hear the side drum’s softly insistent taps from fig S both times round at 1'02" and 1'20"). Elsewhere, the bustling Allegro in ‘Job’s Dream’ ignites excitingly, while the entrance of the organ and timpani in scene 6 is superbly arresting, that terrifying fff peak at eight after fig Qq (4'42") positively seismic in its impact. In ‘Elihu’s Dance of Youth and Beauty’, leader Thelma Handy’s exquisite contribution offers true balm to the soul (intriguingly, there’s a discreet, albeit unmarked harp at fig Rr or 1'31"), while the ensuing ‘Pavane of the Sons of the Morning’ builds to notably majestic effect. Best of all, Manze’s way with the ‘Epilogue’ approaches perfection in its tender compassion and glowing serenity. Overall, this is unquestionably a very fine achievement. (I do hope, by the way, that Hyperion has plans to give us Martyn Brabbins’s perceptive reading of this masterwork.)

As for the remainder, Manze gives a rare outing to the agreeable 1923 ballet Old King Cole, one which in its thrusting, affectionately spry demeanour wisely doesn’t attempt to inflate the music beyond its modest, unpretentious means. Richard Hickox’s terrific Northern Sinfonia of England recording from November 1983 (housed in Warner’s recent ‘New Collector’s Edition’, 11/22) embraces the optional choir, which adds a certain extra lusty frisson to proceedings, but the RLPO’s associate leader Eva Thorarinsdottir acquits herself with distinction, and the whole enterprise provides firm enjoyment. No complaints, either, with Manze’s dashing performance of the folk-tune medley The Running Set. Written for the 1934 National Folk Dance Festival, it rounds off proceedings in splendidly perky fashion, and anyone who has been following Manze’s stimulating RVW series for Onyx will require no further encouragement from me.