KEY POINTS:
Susan Bullock is a soprano who has been making a name for herself in the ultra-demanding German repertoire, playing Elektra for La Scala and Isolde, along with other Wagner heroines, for houses from Perth to Tokyo.
On disc, she is Genevieve to Simon O'Neill's Lancelot in the recent Telarc recording of Chausson's Le Roi Arthus.
Consolidating on her successful Wigmore Hall debut of 2005, Bullock has taken herself off to Crear in rural Scotland with pianist Malcolm Martineau to record her first lieder recital, and it is a winner.
Three early songs by Richard Strauss, including the ecstatic Rote Rosen, are suffused with images of flowers blooming, buds bursting and secret kisses, inspired by one of the composer's early love affairs.
Bullock invests them with just the right sense of innocence and freshness.
Wagner's fearsome Wesendonck Lieder are a rigorous if musically luxurious training ground for would-be Isoldes.
They present no problems for Bullock, making this one of the most effective voice-and-piano versions I have heard.
The soprano gauges the rushing emotions of Stehe Still to the last flicker, as she does the hothouse intensity of Im Treibhaus, where Martineau's pianism is deliciously pliant.
Two less familiar cycles find Prokofiev setting Anna Akhmatova and Britten tackling Pushkin.
Prokofiev's Five Poems of Opus 27 are brilliant pieces, kaleidoscopically so when sunlight is caught flooding into rooms, and Bullock effortlessly discovers the very Slavic sorrow of The Grey-eyed King, with Martineau's piano tolling in sympathy behind her.
Britten's The Poet's Echo is painted in darker hues, from the wrenched chords and ringing vocals of the opening Echo.
However, the composer has never written anything more melodically alluring than My Heart and Bullock gives it its lyrical dues.
Shorter songs by Roger Quilter and Ned Rorem complete the set. Quilter's setting of Shelley's Love's Philosophy is a pulsating delight while Rorem's songs look to the street as well as concert culture.
Early in the Morning is a chanson over croissants while Alleluia is as jazzy as it is jaunty. The enjoyment and unstinting musicality of Bullock and Martineau in bringing them to life are totally infectious.
* Susan Bullock & Malcolm Martineau (Avie AV 2117, through Ode Records)
