The third volume of Holger Falk and Steffen Schleiermacher’s superb survey of the songs of Hanns Eisler sees them reach the composer’s greatest achievement in the genre: the Hollywood Songbook. That work’s 46 numbers – many of them movingly fleeting and aphoristic – make up the bulk of the release.

The Songbook is complemented by six further Brecht songs that fit the programme’s theme, ‘Songs in American Exile 1938 1948’: there’s a dark, troubled quartet as prelude, while ‘In Sturmesnacht’ und ‘Lied einer deutschen Mutter’ offer a melancholy, touching postlude. Throughout, Falk and Schleiermacher bring the same qualities to this generous programme as they did to the previous instalments.

The baritone’s voice is light in colour with an inherently gentle quality to it, but capable of impressive intensity in the upper range. His delivery is subtle: expressive – often fearlessly so – but never flirting with being maudlin or mawkish; constantly alive to the irony and satire that’s never far away. The fact that his pronunciation in the few English settings is not quite right bothers me little, only underlining the sense of exile. Schleiermacher’s playing manages to capture all the colours of Eisler’s broad palette, from Neue Sachlichkeit angularity (listen to him in the Songbook’s first two numbers) to the touching (apparent) simplicity of such gems as ‘An den kleinen Radioapparat’.

With this volume, the pair obviously start to face some stiffer competition, not least from Matthias Goerne and Eric Schneider’s Gramophone Award-winning recording from nearly 20 years ago. Falk can’t match Goerne’s honeyed expressiveness, perhaps, but his cleaner timbre and more straightforward approach bring their own rewards. This new release takes us on a journey through the cycle that’s no less moving: I wouldn’t want to be without either recording. Again, no translation of the German text is provided, but this is another excellent addition to an important survey.