D’Oustrac’s artistry is compelling throughout but the Wagner owes something of its impact to the fact that her voice is at its freshest…[her] smoky tone, careful dynamic shading and wonderful sense of line and phrase conspire with Pascal Jourdan’s marvellous playing to give us something special…The same combination of intelligence and immediacy is very much at work in Berlioz and Liszt.

The French singer’s gleaming bright mezzo brings soprano overtones to this music, and she is especially compelling in Berlioz’s anguished “Ah! Sans amour, s’en aller sur la mer” in Sur les lagunes, and skittish and playful in Villanelle. The piano reduction may lack the sensuality of Berlioz’s orchestral version, but both Jourdain and d’Oustrac compensate with their idiomatic phrasing and colouring.