Not known primarily for vocal music, Skalkottas made an important contribution with the 16 Songs. Written in 1941, to texts by Hrissos Evelpidis, the cycle is inspired by Schoenberg’s Das Buch der hängenden Gärten – and perhaps the Hildegard Jone songs of Webern, ‘Viae inviae’ – though the intricacy of the piano writing is Skalkottas’s alone.

The plaintive first song, ‘Perfection’, typifies the subject-matter – the ceaseless motion of wind and wave, travel as an existential journey into oblivion – of the cycle. The vocal part is an unfolding melodic line, with which the piano engages in a flow of imitative gestures and motivic offshoots. There is no narrative thread, though the cycle progresses through evocations of solitude in ‘Ad Apertum Libri’ and the departed in ‘Revelation/Apocalypse’ to the emotional intensity of ‘Fig Tree’ and ‘Chrysanthemums’ – images of defiance in the face of the inevitable – before the stoic acceptance of ‘Orchard’ and ‘Autumn’.

The songs makes formidable demands on stamina and Angelica Cathariou is well equipped to deal with them, even if greater expressive nuance would have been welcome. Pianist Nikolaos Samaltanos impresses with his clarity and focus.

Of the solo piano couplings, the 15 Little Variations packs a diverse range of moods into its relatively modest dimensions, while the Sonatina (both 1927) surrounds a wistful Siciliano with toccata-like movements which suggest more than passing acquaintance with the Prokofiev of Visions Fugitives. Samaltanos supplies a succinct but useful booklet-note and, despite piano sound which lacks a little definition, the disc can be warmly recommended for illuminating a hitherto unexplored facet of a protean creative force.