Based on Blake’s illustrations of Job’s sufferings from a part of the Bible dripping with Old Testament vindictiveness, Vaughan Williams was commissioned in 1927 to write A Masque for Dancing. In one of his grandest musical utterances, the glorious Saraband of the Sons of God puts the work on the highest level. The exquisite violin solo for the Altar Dance and Elihu’s Dance (a close relative of The Lark Ascending) adds to the work’s beauty. In contrast, the music for the devil is appropriately rowdy, and I’ve not heard the wailing saxophone of Job’s Comforters better played. The dramatic organ entry in this excellent recording is overwhelming.

If there is a connection with the Ninth Symphony it is the sinister use of saxophones, all three of them moody and foreboding. The slow movement is distinguished by a lovely flugelhorn solo; the Scherzo is quirky if somewhat scrappy. In the final movement we are back to the composer’s dreamier mood as he drifts away with those mysterious saxophones, seemingly reaching on and on. His last symphony may not be one his most approachable works, but as his swansong it is austere and compelling; more in line...