This is the latest release in what should have been Richard Hickox’s ongoing Britten opera cycle. Although the conductor’s death cast a shadow over the Royal Opera’s production of The Beggar’s Opera at the Linbury Theatre, the performances went ahead with Christian Curnyn as his replacement and this studio recording, made at Blackheath Concert Halls, features the same cast. The staging was criticised for failing to capture the satirical cut-and-thrust of John Gay’s original, but in the recording the purely musical strengths shine through.

Anybody who enjoys Britten’s folksong arrangements or Purcell realisations will recognise the same ingenuity at work here. The arrangements are busy with counterpoint – Britten himself worried that he was “canonising the music” too much – and the sharp-edged timbres of the chamber scoring sometimes transport the listener off to the familiar world of Albert Herring. All this is well captured by the highly skilled playing that Curnyn gets from the City of London Sinfonia and Chandos’s excellent recording gives every instrument a life of its own. Interest has grown in Britten’s edition of The Beggar’s Opera recently. A few years ago Pearl released a valuable 1948 BBC radio broadcast of the original cast under the composer’s baton, though the sound quality is poor. Decca have also issued a DVD of a BBC television broadcast with a star cast from 1963.

The main competitor to the new Chandos, however, is Argo’s earlier studio recording conducted by Steuart Bedford. The Chandos is longer, mainly because a fuller (and slightly different) version of the dialogue is used, but otherwise honours are even. Tom Randle gives an attractive portrayal of Macheath as a lovable young rogue, though Philip Langridge on Argo makes more of the solo scene Britten gives Macheath near the end.

The two women – Leah-Marian Jones’s Polly Peachum and Sarah Fox’s Lucy Lockit – sing with less beauty than their counterparts but more character, mock Cockney accents and all. Jeremy White as Peachum and, especially, Donald Maxwell as Lockit relish Gay’s brand of low humour. With the stage experience in mind, it is no surprise that supporting roles, such as Susan Bickley’s low-life Mrs Peachum and Frances McCafferty’s thickly Scottish Diana Trapes, come across the footlights strongly – plenty of rude vigour to make this a recommendable addition to the series.