King’s College Choir has a distinguished recording history of Fauré’s evergreen Requiem, starting with David Willcocks’s much-loved 1967 LP. This new release, on the choir’s own label, marks a major step forwards in our understanding of the work’s somewhat garbled genesis.

Following the musicological research undertaken on the score in the late 1970s and early ’80s by Roger Fiske, Paul Inwood, Jean-Paul Nectoux and John Rutter, Marc Rigaudière’s 2011 edition presents the work recorded as given at its first complete liturgical performance in 1889. Significantly, the Offertoire is now an entirely baritone solo, shorn of its opening ‘O Domine’ section, whose wily chromaticisms have often caused singers consternation; and there is a greater reliance on the horns, heavy brass and timpani than in the ‘standard’ 1900 version.

The viola-led OAE offer superb support throughout and the baritone Gerald Finley is at his most tonally liquid, with tenaciously sensitive phrasing. Tom Pickard’s ‘Pie Jesu’ is fine, apart from some affected vowels – perhaps this was an attempt to recreate late-19th-century Parisian Latin pronunciation? Cleobury’s tempi, however, are spot-on. He starts the ‘Libera me’ at a true Moderato, thereby strengthening the wrathful punches of the brass at the più mosso. The choir respond magnificently at this point. For completists, he includes Rutter’s edition of the later ‘definitive’ version of the Offertoire.

The trebles are on top form in the short Messe basse of 1881, and the Cantique de Jean Racine (with organ accompaniment only) makes a satisfying adjunct to this fascinating disc.