Sarah Connolly is no stranger to Mahler. The British mezzo-soprano has long performed his music in concert around the world, but this is the first time she’s recorded for one album the three major song cycles of the Rückert-Lieder, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Kindertotenliedern, following in the footsteps of Janet Baker and John Barbirolli. That classic EMI recording was with orchestra, whereas here a single piano conjures the myriad colours of Mahler’s scores, superbly done by Joseph Middleton.

He is one of the secrets of this recording’s success: the quality of the partnership between singer and pianist is of the highest order. The pair have performed together for a decade, and it feels like a true meeting of artistic like-minds: there’s so much care and detail in their musicianship, yet what really stands out is how expressive the results are. Take the sorrowful Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz, for instance, in which both find the same shade of sombre tone, or the way in which their subtlest inflections open up...