It’s good to welcome the first issue in this new series of the complete songs of Korngold which, aside from Anne-Sofie von Otter’s DG discs, have received scant attention. The earliest were composed in 1911 when Korngold was just 14 years old. The later ones to texts by Shakespeare were composed in Vienna in 1937 and rewritten by him from memory in 1941 after the Nazis burnt the originals.

The attractive young voices of soprano Britta Stallmeister and baritone Uwe Schenker-Primus fall easily on the ear and their interpretations offer many perceptive and poetic insights, as do the deft piano parts that are much more than mere adornments. The soaring soprano lines of the Op 22 set, and that of Op 27 on the theme of immortality, hold no qualms. The loveliest of them, ‘Immortality II’, with a haunting nostalgic tinge, is relished by singer and pianist. Korngold’s English settings of Shakespeare’s words seem to engage Stallmeister’s heart and soul more than the German songs as she warms to the poignant ‘Come away, Death’, with its Mahlerian footsteps in the accompaniment, in contrast to the joyful ‘O mistress mine’, which has a delicious coda for the pianist. ‘Desdemona’s Song’ shows off the clear top to the voice.

It’s a real pleasure to hear the youthful baritone of Schenker-Primus in the Eichendorff settings, an astonishing achievement from the young Korngold. His singing is characterised by a smooth, even tone throughout the range and he interprets the changing moods in these adventuresome settings with great dexterity. The piano is recorded somewhat closer here than in the concert-hall balance for Stallmeister but that doesn’t preclude a strong recommendation.