The Prison (1929-30) was Ethel Smyth’s last major work, an hour-long oratorio-style work described by its composer as a symphony, as Elizabeth Woods notes, ‘to denote an ancient Greek idea of “concordance” of sweet sounds, not the orchestral genre’. In this beautifully prepared and executed performance, The Prison emerges most certainly as a work of sweet sounds and concordance. A symphony it most certainly is not.

The form, however, is beside the point. The Prison is cast in two large parts, ‘Close on Freedom’ and ‘The Deliverance’, each a touch over half an hour in duration. The text, compiled by Smyth herself, derived from the book The Prison: A Dialogue by Smyth’s former lover Henry Bennet Brewster (1850-1908). In it, a Prisoner, presumed on the eve of his execution (sung here with a remarkable synthesis of power and beauty by Dashon Burton) engages in a dialogue with his Soul (radiantly sung by Sarah Brailey), amplified by the chorus. Eventually, the Prisoner becomes reconciled to his fate in a trajectory not unlike that of the victim in Othmar Schoeck’s extraordinary later song-cycle, Lebendig begraben, although in a rather more contemplative manner.

Smyth’s haunting music, given here in conductor James Blachly’s new edition, is beautifully constructed and highly evocative (with quotes or allusions to earlier Smyth scores). Her orchestration is limpid and masterly, rendered lovingly here by Blachly with the Experiential Orchestra. The choral contribution is relatively minor, the focus rightly on the two soloists, but again superbly performed. The only miscalculation is Smyth’s use of ‘The Last Post’ in the concluding pages, adding a martial resonance that may jar to modern ears; to Smyth, a major-general’s daughter, it may just have been an echo of (her) youth which she wanted at this point. Magnificent sound from Chandos, too. Very strongly recommended.