The cosmopolitan (and multilingual) Delius left us no fewer than 62 songs for voice and piano. Half are settings of Norwegian and Danish texts, and there are a dozen English, 11 German and seven French besides. Yvonne Kenny’s satisfying programme begins with the lovely, at times distinctly Griegian Seven Songs from the Norwegian (1889-90), two of which, the delectable “Twilight Fancies” and “The Bird’s Story”, Delius went on to orchestrate. We also get three of the 1888 Five Songs from the Norwegian (which, like its companion set, bears a dedication to Grieg’s singer wife Nina) and three of the Seven Danish Songs of 1896-97 (as its title suggests, the ravishing “Irmelin Rose” fondly quotes from Delius’s first opera of 1890-92, Irmelin). The best known items remain “I-Brasîl” and “To Daffodils” (raptly beautiful settings of Fiona Macleod and Robert Herrick from 1913 and 1915 respectively) but there are gems aplenty elsewhere, notably the surging “Love’s Philosophy” (the second of the Three Shelley Songs from 1891).

Now and again Kenny’s tuning errs on the marginally flat but otherwise there can be no quibbles with her comprehensive grasp of the idiom nor Piers Lane’s sensitive support. Like, I suspect, the majority of Delians, I shan’t be parting with those cherishable Unicorn-Kanchana recordings (4/96) featuring the composer’s amanuensis Eric Fenby in the role of accompanist to Felicity Lott, Sarah Walker and Anthony Rolfe Johnson (the latter’s honey-toned “I-Brasîl” and Walker’s ecstatic “Wine Roses” are, for me, desert island fare), but Kenny gives us a valuable overview, and the sound is pleasingly lifelike.