Delius lovers will already cherish the Intermezzo and Serenade from Hassan as extracted and edited by Thomas Beecham for use as some of his most delectable concert ‘lollipops’. More dedicated Delians may also know the complete score from an eloquent EMI recording made in 1979 under Vernon Handley with Bournemouth forces (11/79). But the problem with just over an hour’s worth of ‘incidental music’ on disc is that it still has to be incidental to something, and without anything to focus upon in performance it can fatally lack shape or purpose. This new recording wins hands down in providing just as much context as needed.

James Elroy Flecker (1884-1915) enjoyed a brief, sadly posthumous burst of popularity, which culminated in 1923 with the London production of his five-act play The Story of Hassan of Baghdad and How He Came to Make the Golden Journey to Samarkand at His Majesty’s Theatre, where it ran for an astonishing 281 performances with choreography by Fokine no less. It was 1920 when producer Basil Dean went to see Delius at his Grez-sur-Loing home and persuaded him to write music for the play – the score was written quickly – and an extra movement (General Dance) was actually composed a little later as a favour by Percy Grainger, who donned his Delian camouflage so brilliantly that you wouldn’t recognise his own voice. There is an undeniable poignancy, nevertheless, in realising that Hassan was almost to be Delius’s last music before Eric Fenby came to assist him and that it provided one of the greatest public and commercial triumphs of his career.

Flecker’s star has waned almost to invisibility and a revival of the play today would be inconceivable. As a centenary project, however, Britten Sinfonia’s Meurig Bowen has cleverly constructed about 20 minutes of narration, which perfectly punctuates the sequence of mostly brief musical numbers while providing enough idea of plot and characterisation to sustain the dramatic curve very effectively. Zeb Soanes could read the telephone directory and still captivate, so his vivid range of voices here is a special treat to complement his natural way of tempting a listener into the story. Britten Sinfonia Voices provide some ravishing Daphnis-like offstage moments and the orchestral playing is top‑drawer. Jamie Phillips doesn’t efface memories of Handley’s unique insight but is evocative in conveying the heartbreaking sadness of the concluding panel – the Golden Journey to Samarkand must rank with Delius’s most haunting inspirations and it is good to find it dramatically rehabilitated and convincingly recorded before a remarkably silent Saffron Hall audience.