Matthew MacFadyen plays the priest newly returned to his native Ireland where, with missionary zeal as the chosen one, he sets about rescuing his kinfolk from a life of debauchery. He’s represented on Debbie Wiseman’s soundtrack by solo violin, played by Jack Liebeck, whose ruminative theme runs in and out of her dark score, enveloping all around as a metaphor for the priest’s cloak. Plucked strings lend a sense of foreboding between priest and parish that erupts forth in the multi-layered writing of “The hour is coming” (tr 2) and “No rest for the wicked” (tr 5). The gloomy pall is not for a rainy day; but as often with this composer it characterises those whose mortal flesh is fallible, as in Wiseman’s earlier soundtracks for Tom and Viv, the story of TS Eliot’s first marriage, and Wilde. The sincerity of her work and a pervading tenderness (“The heart of the family”, tr 3), win through. Those qualities shine too in the orchestral playing, served by a fine recording from Silva Screen.