Dmitri Hvorostovsky’s career has been built on the twin pillars of Italian and Russian repertoire. His very first album paired Verdi with Tchaikovsky and, although there is no Onegin, arias from Iolanta and Mazeppa return for this new disc of Russian scenes and arias from Delos. If top notes don’t come quite as easily, it’s remarkable how much richness his virile, velvety baritone retains, especially considering that this recording was set down amid treatment for a brain tumour.

From The Queen of Spades, the Siberian baritone moves from the suave Prince Yeletsky (I still marvel at his outrageous breath control on that first album) to the cynical Count Tomsky. His Ballad of the Three Cards (‘tri karty’) is a bit low-voltage, lacking the vehement bite of, say, Sergei Leiferkus (who sang the role opposite Hvorostovsky’s Yeletsky for RCA). He’s more at home in the suggestive song likening girls to birds nestling on a branch.

Over the years, Hvorostovsky has done much to promote Anton Rubinstein’s opera The Demon. Arias have featured on two previous collections, and here half the (not-too-generous) disc is taken up with the final scene where, in a convent, the demon reveals his tortured soul to Tamara. When she finally succumbs, his kiss kills her. Partnered by Asmik Grigorian, daughter of the late Gegam Grigorian with whom Hvorostovsky performed many times, they make a great case for the opera. Grigorian’s warm, vibrant soprano is also heard in the opening scene to Prokofiev’s War and Peace, as Hvorostovsky’s noble Prince Andrei yearns for springtime happiness. Constanine Orbelian leads fairly routine playing, but full texts and translations are included.