This is the second CD to result from Mark-Anthony Turnage’s LPO’s residency. The surprise is that two of the three pieces are heard in top-notch studio recordings. Twice Through the Heart is a revival of a dramatic song-cycle-cum-scena from as long ago as 1997. The text is drawn from a series of poems originally written for a television film about a woman who stabs her abusive husband. As might be expected it’s a pretty bleak affair. Sarah Connolly is a distinguished replacement for Sally Burgess in the role of the nameless protagonist. And if listeners feel uncomfortable with the mix of artful delivery and documentary realism, that may be part of the intended effect.

Hidden Love Song, featuring saxophonist Martin Robertson, derives from a live concert with applause retained. This first new composition associated with Turnage’s LPO tenure is a wordless offering built from musical ciphers associated with the composer’s partner. The characteristic attempts to disrupt the lyrical line are thus carefully rationed and there’s no mistaking the professional gleam and twinkle of the results.

Confirming a certain softening of idiom, The Torn Fields is equally accessible though weightier thematically. Here Turnage eschews Jackie Kay’s down-to-earth phraseology in Twice Through the Heart, preferring the sort of poetry that attracted composers of a previous anti-war generation. The music still draws on vernacular bluesy elements but they lie within a smoother, more melodic, high-culture mix. Bryn Terfel was at one time scheduled to perform the sequence but it’s difficult to imagine a more ardent exponent than Gerald Finley. While the orchestral writing is spare, Finley’s diction is second to none, allied to exceptional beauty of tone. Particularly haunting is the Wilfred Owen setting (tr 14), the narrative of a soldier who, like the protagonist of The Silver Tassie, survives severely maimed only to experience physical and emotional rejection. The gentle treatment of the familiar final poem by Siegfried Sassoon (tr 17) provides a glimpse of the transcendent. Excellent contextual notes plus full texts (including passages not set by the composer). No nonsense here about having to go online!