The first and abiding impression made by this recital is of air and grace. Graham Johnson's piano-playing is delightfully free yet exact.
McGreevy's voice has a warmth in its still youthful glow; she also has the art of making it smile.
In the first two Mignon songs she intensifies tone and emotion quite movingly; in Kennst dudas Land? she may be not quite seeing the moun- tain and caves of the third verse or feeling the awesome power of the 'Flut', and in Philine she lacks the naughty zest for it. Yet always there are lovely things – as when she catches the expression of the statues as they put to Mignon their piteous question. She's also good (as are they both) at the boisterous Gutmann und Gutweib: a rarity that's lucky to find in Johnson so persuasive an advocate.