There are few things more satisfying for a critic than watching a promising young singer blossom into a major artist. It was back in 2011 that I first spotted Natalya Romaniw, bowled over by her outstanding Iolanta in a double bill – with Donizetti’s Rita! – at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She already possessed a substantial sound and seemed the perfect fit for the big Slavic repertoire, borne out by magnificent performances in recent years as Tatyana, Jenůfa, Rusalka and Lisa (Pique Dame) for British companies and summer festivals, including Opera Holland Park, where she returned last summer for another Iolanta. She’s also become a fixture in Italian spinto repertoire at the Coliseum, where she made an impressive role debut as Cio-Cio-San earlier this year.

Romaniw is Welsh but has Ukrainian roots, her grandfather settling in Wales during the Second World War. She grew up learning Ukranian folk songs, so the Slavic repertoire seems to come naturally to her. On this debut recital disc, she explores Russian and Czech songs of six composers from the familiar – Rachmaninov’s ‘Sing not to me, beautiful maiden’ – to the rarely heard Vítězslav Novák.

Make no mistake, Romaniw is a great talent. The plush richness of her soprano is astonishing. Anna Netrebko, in a rare foray into song rep, performed a handful of the same Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky songs in her 2009 Salzburg Festival programme with Daniel Barenboim (DG, 6/10), and it’s no exaggeration to say that Romaniw need not fear any comparison. Indeed, her lower register is at times even richer (bear in mind the Russian’s soprano has grown considerably since that Salzburg recital).

Romaniw taps into the melancholy of the Russian songs especially well. She opens strongly with a trio of Rimsky songs, including the beautiful ‘Nimfa’, while her Tchaikovsky selection is equally fine. There are occasional moments in the Rachmaninov songs where her soprano sounds pressured, and she doesn’t quite get the ‘float’ in the middle of ‘How fair this spot’, but ‘Arion’, which lends the disc its title, demonstrates terrific depth of tone.

In Dvořák’s Op 83 Love Songs, Romaniw doesn’t always take the same intimate approach that Magdalena KoŽená achieves on her (early) DG album (8/00), but it’s great to hear these sung so passionately. And what a gem the final song is, ‘Ó, duše drahá, jedinká’, with its romantic, swooning line ‘were I a singing swan, I’d fly to you’. The selection from Janáček’s Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs positively burst with character – aided by the Czech pianist Lada Valešová as ever-attentive partner – while the five Novák songs that close the disc are a revelation, so beautifully crafted. The recording, in Suffolk’s Potton Hall, is wonderfully natural, allowing a fine bloom. Strongly recommended. Remember the name; you’ll not forget the voice.