Dame Sarah Connolly and Joseph Middleton present a richly rewarding programme of art songs from a variety of composers. The recital opens with Chaussons Pome de lamour et de la mer, which took almost a decade to compose and shows Wagners influence on the younger composer. Composed in 1935 on a study trip to Rome, Barbers Three Songs set poems by James Joyce and portray three love affairs. Debussys Trois Chansons de Bilitis set the erotic poems of Pierre Lous, which were all the rage in Paris at the turn of the century.

Aaron Copland completed his Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson in 1950, but declared that they should not be seen as a set but as twelve individual works. Connolly here includes Ive heard an organ talk sometimes and The world feels dusty, the latter giving the album its title. The programme concludes with the premire recording of Errollyn Wallens Night Thoughts: a cycle of four songs commissioned by Leeds Lieder, and first performed by Dame Sarah and Joseph, the cycles dedicatees. Setting two of her own poems alongside one by Emily Dickinson and lines from Shakespeares Macbeth, the cycle took its inspiration from Howard Hodgkins painting Night Thoughts.