The title for this album might suggest a mixed recital, picking and choosing songs along the theme from across Brahms’s song output. It’s perhaps a measure of quite how heavily the themes of loss and betrayal – and more generally just unhappiness in love – feature across the composer’s oeuvre that the title fits so well to four complete opus sets.

And that’s what we have here, making this both a useful selection and a rewarding recital, and one that offers a welcome chance to hear some of the more popular songs in context. Simon Wallfisch and Edward Rushton prove eloquent, expert guides. Wallfisch’s baritone is a sturdy, authoritative instrument, if not the most mellifluous or seductive: there’s a tendency to harshness at louder volumes. He and Rushton chart a far less introspective, luxuriant course through the Op 32 Lieder und Gesänge, for instance, than Matthias Goerne and Christoph Eschenbach on their Gramophone Award-winning Brahms disc.

But the baritone offers impressive conviction, a natural sense of communication and a broad dynamic range, both from song to song and within each number: ‘Es träumte mir’ provides a good case in point. There’s tenderness in ‘Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer’, a lovely lilt to ‘Die Schnur, die Perl an Perle’ and plenty of grand passion when called for. Rushton, who provides his own clear and effective translations of the texts in the booklet, offers superb support: discreet, subtle and beautifully shaded. With fine engineering, this adds up to an enjoyable recital that’s well worth seeking out.