First prize-winner of the prestigious Montreal International Musical Competition in 2012, Philippe Sly possesses a fine, velvet bass-baritone voice, clear diction and splendid, true intonation. This foray into the repertoire of English song is, I suspect, an interesting new excursion for him. In terms of his handling of dynamics, nuance of language and the poetry he brings to the long melodic lines of much of this music, I give full marks. Occasionally missing is a more pronounced sense of characterisation and more involvement in the text itself.

In the more euphonious British folksong arrangements by Healey Willan (a rarity), and in the warm glow of Quilter’s melodically dominated effusions (‘Take, O take those lips away’ is particularly affecting), Sly is at his best. Though there is perhaps not quite the variation of shades and insights as one finds in Roderick Williams’s compelling readings of Vaughan Williams’s The House of Life (Naxos), Sly’s introspective interpretations of the songs nevertheless have a captivating, melancholy hue which comes to the fore in ‘Love-Sight’, ‘Love’s Minstrels’ and the much-loved ‘Silent Noon’; similarly his response to Holst’s visionary three Vedic Hymns. In Ireland’s Three Masefield Ballads, however, I feel his delivery of ‘Sea Fever’ and ‘The Vagabond’, where the folk narrative and homespun philosophy is an important facet of the songs’ charm and individuality, could be a little less stiff (compare Bryn Terfel’s flexible interpretations – DG, 8/95). Michael McMahon’s supportive accompaniment throughout is sensitive and perceptive.