The German composer Walter Steffens (b1934) has written in many styles and genres, from the intimate to the extravagant, and embraced everything from art songs, chamber music and orchestral works to opera. Among the extensive list of creations he has based on paintings is Guernica, a powerful orchestral depiction of Picasso’s masterpiece.

On this new disc, two recent works in the vocal sphere reveal how flexible Steffens can be according to the dictates of the respective texts. A post-Romantic sensibility in Five Songs on Hölderlin (2008) is reflected in expressive melodic lines wedded to rich harmonies. The verses aren’t printed in the CD booklet but they can be read – only in German – on the Navona Records website. Mezzo-soprano Sonja Bruzauskas and pianist Tali Morgulis shape the songs with elegant commitment.

Steffens switches gears in Two Cells in Sevilla, or Don Quixote is Hungry (2016), a one-act chamber opera in which the imprisoned protagonists hope to be fed more acceptable food by weaving exciting tales for the love-starved female cook. The prisoners turn out to be Miguel de Cervantes (creator of Don Quixote) and Tirso de Molina (Don Juan), who run into some competition when a servant reads a Falstaff letter penned by a foreigner named Shakespeare.

The libretto, by Marec Béla Steffens (the composer’s son), possesses dashes of wit and colour that are embodied in the lively instrumental contributions but not always in the austere vocal writing. The music, full of Expressionist gestures, rarely smiles. Members of the Houston-based Greenbriar Consortium, nevertheless, give their all as led by David Kirk.