This is undoubtedly the most dramatic, explosive opening in all opera; straight into the action - a ship’s sail spotted off shore during a violent storm in Cyprus, and then after a successful docking, a triumphant announcement of the destruction of the Turkish fleet by the newly arrived Cypriot governor, Otello. You hear the greatest modern exponent of the role in prime form.

Imagine a Tudor Royal tournament, like the Field of the Cloth of Gold. This was the music of the joust, approximating war. The sound here is a Renaissance ‘Big Band’, full of the pipes and drums of an army on the march.

Queen Anne had this sung to her on her birthday. Let us hope she paid some attention to this magisterial countertenor and trumpet duet. You may recognize this from a recent Royal wedding, sung by a high soprano. Countertenor was the original voice.

The richness of these irresistible harmonies depict a sacred feast of ineffable mystery.

This aria from Così fan tutte is usually sung in Italian as “Un’aura amorosa”. Fritz Wunderlich generally stuck to his native German. Frankly, he can be forgiven anything if he sings like this.

Glorious infectious silliness by the King of the “Doo-be-doo-wahs”. I bet you can’t resist joining in… or dancing….or both.

Desdemona sings “Ave Maria” before retiring to bed, fearful that it will be her

last night. The conductor Toscanini called Renalta Tebaldi’s voice “La voce d’angelo”.

Written as a wedding present, with a fiendishly difficult piano part, it is every violinist’s dream to play this glorious masterpiece.

And now the purple dusk of twilight time steals across the meadows of my heart. If you can’t be with your loved ones, at least dream about them. Not unfitting for now.

Badinage we call it - jesting and joking. This is a much-used mobile phone ringtone as well. Pity Bach gets no royalties.

The last 2 tracks work as a pair. Here is the original Hymn (‘Why fumeth in sight: the Gentils spite, in fury ragiing stout ?”) which Vaughan Williams included in his edition of the English Hymnal in 1906, and then used for this next Fantasia.

This and The Lark Ascending are the composer’s trademark compositions. This last track is another long meditative contemplation, written with the overlapping acoustical properties of a cathedral in mind.