At the start of the global pandemic, a lot of people went into lockdown with family, many escaping the big cities to join parents of whom they see little during their usual working lives. Soprano Katharine Dain did something different. She locked down in Rotterdam with her friend and recital partner, pianist Sam Armstrong, initially to buy some extra rehearsal time ahead of upcoming performances. Like many of us, they assumed it would all be over in a few weeks.

At a time when life made little sense, Dain and Armstrong sought solace in music, exploring song repertoire as a ‘meditation’, a chance to work without deadlines, fully immersing in the music. This album is the direct result. ‘Regards sur l’infini’ is a collection of songs in French written at pivotal points in the lives of the composers or poets behind them. Messiaen’s Poèmes pour Mi lies at its heart, immediately framed by two songs by its dedicatee, his first wife, Claire Delbos. These, in turn, are enveloped symmetrically by Debussy’s Proses lyriques, Dutilleux and Saariaho. It is in many ways a lockdown chronicle, a focus on the present. Dain provides many of the translations herself and her booklet essay is sensitively penned, honest and thoughtful.

Dain’s soprano has a slender, pure quality, fearless at altitude such as in Kaija Saariaho’s ‘Il pleut’, where her instrument is beautifully controlled over the droplets of rain falling from Armstrong’s piano accompaniment. His playing of the Debussy songs, in particular, has wonderful clarity. The fragility of the Messiaen cycle is carefully managed, Dain’s soprano floating especially well in ‘Ta voix’. The two Delbos songs from L’âme en bourgeon are rarities on disc; the cycle was premiered at the same recital as the Poèmes pour Mi. Dain and Armstrong’s performance should encourage further exploration. Dutilleux’s ‘Regards sur l’infini’ is possibly the most exquisite track on the album, melancholy, confessional.

Although many of these songs share the same mood, the same slow tempo, the same sparseness of texture, it gives the album an intimate, contemplative atmosphere – one for quiet evenings of reflection.