For her debut recital album, the German soprano Hanna-Elisabeth Müller covers a century of song from late Schumann, via early Zemlinsky, to Poulenc. It makes a pleasing programme, performed with seriousness and abundant artistry by Müller and her fine pianist, Juliane Ruf.

The soprano is well suited in terms of temperament and timbre in particular to the plangent, introspective Schumann and the cool, playful Poulenc. Her voice, already heard in the fourth movement in Adám Fischer’s Editor’s Choice recording of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony (AVI-Music, 1/18), might not be to all tastes: there’s a slightly vinegary openness to it, an unvarnished honesty rather than an even pearly sheen, with a special sweet spot nearer the top of its range.

Although she can’t match the supreme artistry of Christian Gerhaher in Schumann’s Op 107 songs (who can?), she and Ruf present them affectingly, while their account of Op 90 becomes more effective as it progresses. Müller misses the mock ruggedness of ‘Lied eines Schmiedes’, but ‘Einsamkeit’ and ‘Requiem’, though somewhat restricted in scale, are both moving.

There’s a pleasing mixture of wit and cool in the two Poulenc sets – both ‘Lune d’avril’ and ‘Fleurs’ are properly beguiling – but the soprano is sometimes pushed by the demands of the Zemlinsky. There’s some hardness of tone in ‘Liebe Schwalbe’, while one notices a lack of dramatic intensity in ‘Ich geh’ des Nachts’. Pentatone’s presentation is let down by a poor essay that’s neither informative nor readable. Nevertheless, this is an enjoyable debut from an appealing and engaging singer.