Hugo Wolf’s Italian Songbook has attracted many great pairings of singers in the past. This new recording, however, makes a good claim to join the finest in the catalogue, with the familiar partnership of Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton bolstered by fellow Brit Allan Clayton, a singer heard all too rarely in lieder, on record at least.

Choosing to present the songs in published order, they offer a performance to cherish: fresh, intelligent and beautifully sung and played. It’s a considered studio account in contrast to the more playful recent live recording from Kaufmann, Damrau and Deutsch, but if anything all the more affecting as a result.

In Clayton’s performances we detect a real poet, for example, conveying his thoughts with moving interiority, sincerity and a quasi-religious sense of devotion –appropriate given much of the verse’s imagery. That’s not to say there isn’t passion or, where necessary, scorn (in ‘Lass sie nur gehn’, for example); and while the tenor’s slightly tangy, light tone might not offer the honey of some, it has an ideal clarity and directness for his approach. He sings exquisitely, too – just listen to his ‘Und willst du deinen Liebsten sterben sehen’ or the beautiful account of ‘Nun lass uns Frieden schliessen’.

Sampson is more of a known quantity but complements Clayton superbly in her songs. The voice is bright and pellucid, and her intelligence always shines through. Others have arguably made more of the language but I like the fact that Sampson is more kittenish than catty in the mocking numbers. There’s certainly no shortage of mischief and sparkle, either, and heartbreak is, we sense, never too far away, with ‘Was soll der Zorn, mein Schatz’ achieving a grand sense of tragedy.

The glue that holds the whole enterprise together, though, is undoubtedly Middleton. His piano-playing is at once razor-sharp and meltingly seductive. It sparkles with wonderful little details without unnecessarily drawing attention to itself; it lets all the wit and power of Wolf’s piano-writing shine through without ever risking overpowering the singers. In short, it’s playing that strikes an ideal balance, helped by characteristically fine engineering from BIS.

All in all, this adds up to a beautiful new recording of a wonderful work. Highly recommended.