This is the third volume based on the BBC Radio 3 programme Voices and is an excellent selection. Susan Chilcott, increasingly known on the international opera stage, and Iain Burnside both grasp the subtlety of Copland’s idiom. The two sets of Old American Songs are rightly sung in an American accent in a range of styles from the soulful-nostalgic of ‘Long time ago’ to the knockabout comedy of ‘I bought me a cat’. But ‘Simple Gifts’, so well known from Appalachian Spring, is taken well below the marked tempo.

Copland’s settings of Emily Dickinson are given with the commanding authority that this great cycle deserves. I have taken part in this work in front of Copland and discussed it with him: I am certain he would have been impressed by Chilcott’s youthful vitality. The competition on CD consists of Roberta Alexander with Roger Vignoles, where I found minor flaws, and Barbara Bonney with André Previn, which is not an all-Copland disc. Neither of Copland’s own recordings is still available. Even in this company Chilcott is impressive, with an enviable control of the wide leaps from top to bottom. Her breath control is so good that she is easily able to sustain the last note of ‘I could not stop for death’ for its full length, symbolising eternity. In each song every mood is right, although the recorded balance varies.

The early songs are interesting. Copland set his friend Aaron Schaffer’s poem Night when he was only 18 and when Debussy’s impressionism was avant-garde. But Pastorale three years later, just before he went to study with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, shows real personality.

Iain Burnside plays the Four Piano Blues sensitively but the second and third are too slow. We could have done with more of the songs but overall this is a valuable addition to Copland on CD, especially the major cycle.