This release becomes a magnificent final testament to one of the greatest interpreters of Czech music. Asrael, named for the angel of death (for both Jews and Muslims) was the product of Josef Suk’s grief after losing his father-in-law Dvorák and his young wife in rapid succession. What fascinates me more than anything about this genuinely neglected masterpiece – a genre which in the age of Naxos is becoming rarer – is the dignity of Suk’s suffering: he rarely descends to the Manfred-like lugubriousness of Tchaikovsky or the self-dramatisation of Mahler. Only at the end of the first movement with screaming strings and manic drums does his suffering become uncontrollable, a moment perfectly calibrated by Mackerras and the Czech Philharmonic, who play like real angels throughout.

From the opening bars, Mackerras captures the elegiac atmosphere with the soulful cor anglais over pizzicato strings. In the second movement Andante, these forces distill the exquisite numbness of grief. However, what makes this work so...