Benedetto Marcello: Requiem in the Venetian Manner (Chaconne)
Now and again, a CD arrives out of the blue and transports you to another universe. This selection of 18th-century religious music by a composer you've never heard of from a cast of unknown singers does exactly that. Graceful, expressive and apparently effortless, Marcello's music is pure joy - though not without its inner terrors, as you'll discover when you come to the raging discords of the Rex tremendae - and it is given a sparkling premiere recording (almost 300 years after it was written, imagine) by the Athestis Chorus and Academia de li Musici conducted by Filippo Maria Bressan, who has turned his musicological expertise into a gleaming jewel of an album.
Benjamin Britten: Billy Budd (Chandos)
The acid test for any recording of Billy Budd is the chorus O Heave, which punctuates the opera's frenetic opening scene. If it's done a la jolly sea shanty, you know you're in trouble. Here it emerges like a monster from the deep: shadowy, muted, a half-glimpse of an inexpressible misery. And as the Hermann Melville-inspired tale progresses, the impression is confirmed. This is to be a darkly intelligent reading, shot through with profound insights and performances to treasure. The baritone Simon Keenlyside is a marvellous Billy - no wilting violet, but robust and intuitively physical - and he is flanked by a formidable cast and accompanied by an orchestra (the LSO under Richard Hickox) at the top of its form. Quite simply superb.
