For the second release in his projected survey of Brahms’s complete songs on Linn, Malcolm Martineau is joined by mezzo Sarah Connolly and bass-baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann for five sets of songs covering some 30 years of the composer’s song-composing career.

In contrast to, say, Hyperion’s complete edition, the new survey presents complete opuses, allowing the listener to place the better-known songs – and there are a fair few here – in the context in which they were originally published. The result is rewarding, especially given the quality of the performances. Martineau’s playing is ever alive to details, always impeccably articulated and beautifully voiced, and his two singers bring a real authority to what they sing.

The booklet doesn’t specify who gets to tackle what, but 16 songs go to Connolly, 13 to Müller-Brachmann, with the mezzo getting the lion’s share of the hits – ‘Von ewiger Liebe’ und ‘Die Mainacht’ from Op 43, for example, ‘Herbstgefühl’ from Op 48 or ‘Unbewegte laue Luft’ from Op 57. She brings all the virtues one would expect to them: technically assured vocalism, bags of style and intelligent pointing of the text, even if I miss some sensuality in her tone (compare her more mature timbre to that of Bernarda Fink or Anne Sofie von Otter in those two Op 43 songs, for example).

Müller-Brachmann ends up with some of the more easy-going numbers, as well as those harking back to medieval chivalry, and his voice – pleasingly rounded with a slightly weather-beaten quality – suits them well. He’s a vivid narrator, too. But he can also rustle up plenty of grandeur and passion when he needs to (listen to ‘Ach wende diesen Blick’ and ‘In meiner Nächten sehnen’ from Op 5).

Overall, this is a handsome album and one that bodes well for the rest of this enterprising series.