There can never be a doubt that Amy Pfrimmer feels what she is singing. The American soprano brings a deep well of fervour to the repertoire on ‘Eternal Life’, her recording with pianist Dreux Montegut. Much of the fare is familiar, ranging from the Gounod and Schubert settings of Ave Maria and pieces by Fauré, Franck, Mendelssohn and Mozart to a selection of Spirituals.

Among the works known better in church than concert contexts are Eternal Life, Olive Dungan’s song set to the Prayer for Peace by St Francis of Assisi, Albert Hay Malotte’s rapturous version of the Lord’s Prayer and Stephen Adams’s majestic The Holy City. The music in Eternal Life ascends as the text moves to its hopeful culmination and Pfrimmer invests phrases with increasing intensity and vibrancy. Here, as elsewhere, she makes sure every word is clear, whatever the range or language, and her bright voice, while often too generous of vibrato, sends the messages urgently into space.

Pfrimmer is at her expressive, clarion best in dramatic episodes, such as ‘Hear ye, Israel!’ (from Mendelssohn’s Elijah) and Gounod’s O Divine Redeemer. In a series of Spirituals arranged by Moses Hogan and Hall Johnson, she savours the moments of celebratory zeal and religious ecstasy in close communion with pianist Montegut. These songs require a fine balance between urgent storytelling and rhapsodic declamation. Pfrimmer delivers them with passion, lucidity and respect.