Degout’s superb voice sounds wonderfully virile throughout his impressive range...In the more testosterone-driven songs, he sounds suitably heroic…Felicity Palmer has a magnificent cameo as Edward’s ghastly mother in Brahms’s setting of the eponymous ballad…Lepper is supremely unhurried throughout, spinning out the suspense and bringing welcome gravitas to these macabre stories.

Red in tooth and claw, this macabre collection of Gothic tales is one of the best things I've heard all year: Degout and Lepper spin these ripping yarns to perfection, so that even if you already know what fate has in store for Wolf’s Feuerreiter or Schumann’s Belsatzar the pair will still have you on the edge of your seat.

Degout entices, terrifies and enthrals, seemingly employing his entire extensive vocal colour palette.

There’s some seriously superb singing on this disc: throughout, there’s the thrill of hearing a big voice perfectly calibrated to the music in hand, used with absolutely security. Degout never loses control, never tips over the line even if he sometimes seems to be standing on the edge, dangling one foot over the abyss. It’s quite a performance.