As John Fallas puts it in his informative booklet note, ‘not many singers record their first recital album two decades into a successful international career’. Indeed, he goes on to explain that, in Brindley Sherratt’s case, even that career started late: the bass spent several years with the BBC Singers before heading into the world of opera. In short, though, it’s been worth the wait.

The programme has been carefully chosen, with the emphasis – perhaps inevitably – on the darker themes of the song catalogue. Right from the start, one marvels at the sheer easy authority of Sherratt’s voice, the richness, the baleful depths, the steadiness and smoothness across the range. One starts to look forward to the low notes: the D in an especially imposing ‘Der Tod und das Mädchen’, the D flat that concludes ‘Im Spätboot’. But there’s great deal more to the album than just that. With Julius Drake a superb partner at the keyboard, these are considered, affecting performances – as one would expect from an artist with Sherratt’s experience. In the best sense, he’s a reliable guide through all the songs.

Others might bring more colour to Schubert’s texts, perhaps, and the bel canto elegance of ‘L’incanto degli occhi’ feels a little out of place among so much gravitas. And some might want a more biting edge to Mussorgsky’s morbid songs than we get here, where the piano also occasionally feels a little set back in the sound picture. But Sherratt’s interpretations have an imposing power all their own, the deep, oaky patina of the voice carrying with it a special emotional weight.

This is perhaps especially true in the English songs, where his natural delivery brings special rewards: the gnarly authority conveyed in ‘Sea-Fever’, the grandeur of the climaxes of both ‘Fear no more the heat o’ the sun’ and ‘By a Bierside’ or the easy swagger of ‘Limehouse Reach’. They make for a rewarding conclusion to an imposing, impressive album. Here’s hoping for a follow-up.