Naxos’s policy of devoting single discs to single composers has methodically expanded the repertoire and given important young performers like Brian Mulligan and Timothy Long the opportunity to record two major works together which otherwise they might have come to only years apart, if at all.

These two song-cycles are literally worlds apart: The Andrée Expedition was Argento’s response to a quixotically failed balloon trip to the North Pole based on the letters and journals of the three Swedish friends who perished in the attempt. Its mixture of folly and courage is captured in the final words: ‘It is indeed a wonderful journey through the night. I am cold but will not wake the two sleepers.’ As the 45-minute narrative progresses, Mulligan relaxes into the three roles he must play and, with Long brilliantly at his side, mines a succession of poignant gem-like moments, exquisite distillations of love and brief emotional surges which lead along the trio’s slow frozen path to mortality, like a modern day Winterreise without the melodies.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1975, From the Diary of Virginia Woolf yields itself gracefully to Mulligan’s lyrical feel and declamatory power, while the texts and music draw him in almost without his seeming to know it. In both cycles, the piano-writing puts the pianist into a nearly equal relationship, which Long handles splendidly.

The clarity and presence of the sound, recorded at Abeshouse Productions in Pelham, NY, combined with Mulligan’s superb articulation, almost compensates for there being no printed texts.