Erudite folksongs these, seen through the lens of the ‘classical composer’. But there’s a layer of experience, in the multinational backgrounds of both performers (Gubisch is of Spanish and German descent, Altinoglu of Armenian; both were born in Paris), and another of intellectual curiosity, which led to deeper research involving ethnomusicologists and traditional singers, as Gubisch explains in the booklet-notes with regard to the Berio set (though it’s perversely pleasing to note that understanding the Azerbaijani song defeats her as it did Cathy Berberian!).

The Berio songs are placed right at the centre of the programme, which is an astute move: their cosmopolitanism is what interests the artists (and most listeners, I imagine), but it is balanced by the ‘classicising’ of Falla, Obradors, Granados and Brahms – and again, the Brahms Zwei Gesänge and ‘Wiegenlied’ are the perfect choices to end the programme. Gubisch manages to suggest the presence of Berberian in a remarkable way in the Berio, though she certainly does not try to imitate her; the accompaniment is as sensitive as could be imagined.

While the Falla Siete Canciones seem somehow a little overdone, slightly heavy for their genuine simplicity, Granados’s four maja songs (especially ‘El mirar de la maja’, in which Altinoglu’s playing is outstanding) are superb; but I’d say that it was in the Brahms songs that Gubisch feels most at home, her voice combining perfectly with the viola and piano in the Zwei Gesänge and leaving us in ‘Wiegenlied’ with no trace of artificial sentimentality.