As with Britten, fresh recordings of Henze inevitably confront those the composer conducted personally, and this alluring and restrained Being Beauteous is no exception. In 1968 the soprano Edda Moser joined Henze for a heated, at times delirious reading, one so lush Andrew Porter was moved to write that, in the cantata itself, ‘Henze’s “Delius side” is to the fore’ (12/68).

Whether praise or condemnation, that rings hollow hearing this new version, with Peter Ruzicka leading four cellists from the NDR Symphony, the harpist Sophia Whitson and Anna Prohaska. Prohaska’s view of Arthur Rimbaud’s prose poem is altogether cooler, more ethereal and reservedly sensual than Moser’s, taking seriously the snowy setting of the Beauteous Being’s violent metamorphosis. The result is enrapturing, otherworldly, her clean tone serene and her diction superb. Even if Henze drew more tonal variation from his cellists than Ruzicka, these are two equally worthwhile companion views of the piece.

It might seem odd that Wergo has come out with another Kammermusik 1958, barely three years after its first (2/13), but Ruzicka’s is both stronger than and different to Jörg-Peter Mittmann’s, being the first recording of a variant for string orchestra (plus clarinet, bassoon and horn soloists), rather than string quintet. The effect is to subtract a little of Henze’s aching fragility and to add a more elegiac, embittered air, especially to the epilogue.

Peter Gijsbertsen sings Hölderlin’s verse solidly, with a slight Pearsian woofle that recalls the tenor for whom Henze wrote, though Jürgen Ruck is too modest and unflashy in the guitar part intended for Julian Bream. Dig around on YouTube and two Henze versions – the world premiere and an out-of-print London Sinfonietta account – prove more atmospheric listens.