Alice Coote, partnered with exquisite grace and scrupulous care by Mark Elder and the Hallé, gives us a Sea Pictures of arresting character and flawless technical control. Some may occasionally find her delivery of the text a little too knowing (not a criticism that can be levelled at either Janet Baker or Sarah Connolly), but her keen dramatic instinct and darkly sumptuous tone (especially in the lower reaches) give enormous pleasure throughout. Elder’s patient, supple and unfailingly cogent support affords Coote ample breathing space and positively glints with newly studded detail. If I do have just one other tiny regret, it concerns the opulent closing pages of ‘Sabbath Morning at Sea’, where I always crave the irresistible heft provided by Elgar’s optional organ part (such a memorable component on Vernon Handley’s LPO account with Bernadette Greevy – CfP, 11/81). No matter, this is definitely a Sea Pictures to experience for yourselves.

Elder and his estimable orchestra also shine in the remainder of the programme. Completed in July 1915, the rousing wartime tribute Polonia genuinely warms the cockles – a reading of treasurable fire, commitment and pliability – and it’s followed by comparably dashing advocacy for the Pomp and Circumstance Marches. Brimful of athletic swagger, eagle-eyed observation and combustible spontaneity, this is music-making to make you appreciate afresh the communicative flair and consummate craft of Elgar’s indelible inspiration. How giddily affirmative those big tunes in Nos 1, 4 and 5 sound here, and what feisty rhythmic snap Elder brings to Nos 2 and 3 in particular. All in all, Elder’s is a ripely engineered performance to rank alongside another uncommonly articulate Pomp and Circumstance from Manchester, namely Andrew Davis’s with the BBC Philharmonic (Chandos, 7/12). An altogether most invigorating release, this, and not to be missed.