Critics’ Choice Alert! The Requiem by Arnold Rosner (1945-2013) is magnificent. Completed in 1973, it originated from an abortive plan to convert Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 film The Seventh Seal into an opera. Rosner adapted the music he had sketched into an hour-long, choral-orchestral secular Requiem the subject of which is both the fragility and vulnerability of life and its immutable regenerative quality. Rosner collated the text from many sources: the book of Revelation, Catholic liturgy, poems by Gottfried Benn, Villon, Whitman and Dante, a Zen Buddhist sutra and the Kaddish – the latter movingly sung by soprano Kelley Hollis. Two of the 10 movements are purely orchestral: the third, the compelling, driving toccata ‘Musica Satanica’, and the finale, the German title of which translates as ‘and again the immense darkness’.

Yet the Requiem, an astonishing achievement for a 28-year-old, is also full of light, with an expressive and musical range to match that of the texts. The choral writing at times emulates medieval organum, at others a fusion with Ligeti; the music has a rhythmic drive that reminded me of Tippett with a Shostakovian power, yet the orchestration (often delicate) sparkles and shimmers like Holst. But it sounds like none of these exemplars and is pure Rosner. The four soloists sing immaculately but are outshone by the wonderful Crouch End Festival Chorus. The London Philharmonic Orchestra under Nick Palmer play with a verve and enthusiasm that communicates vividly, caught in demonstration-quality sound. I cannot recommend this highly enough.