Proceedings are launched in irresistible fashion with the baritone Roderick Williams at his golden-toned, articulate best in the first three songs from Set 6 (the capricious ‘Love is a bable’ fairly twinkles with mischief), and he also shines in the two settings of George Meredith from Set 8 (the effervescent ‘Marian’ contrasting boldly with the uneasy tread of ‘Dirge in Woods’). Sarah Fox brings a comparable depth of understanding and expressive reach to both ‘Gone but were the winter cold’ (a powerfully introspective vehicle for the soprano Agnes Nicholls) and the poignant treatment of Byron’s ‘When we two parted’ from Set 4.

Fox is also entrusted with Set 9 in its entirety. Composed in 1908 and published the following year, these seven settings of the novelist and poet Mary Coleridge (the great-grand-niece of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and whose death from appendicitis in 1907 had come as a great shock) represent the nearest Parry came to writing a song-cycle. There’s much that is engaging in this collection, be it the melodic grace of ‘Armida’s Garden’, subtle harmonic scope of ‘Whether I live’ or some splendidly evocative tone-painting in ‘The Witches’ Wood’. Tenor James Gilchrist chips in with three offerings, his glowing delivery of Keats’s ‘Bright Star!’ which concludes Set 4 yielding especial pleasure. And a final word of praise, too, for Andrew West’s uncommonly deft pianism throughout.

Admirably truthful sound and balance, Jeremy Dibble’s authoritative booklet essay and full texts bolster the appeal of what is a thoroughly commendable release.