Album: Brahms, Handel et al, Recital at Ravinia – Hunt Lieberson, (Harmonia Mundi)

Recorded at the Ravinia Festival two years before her death, this recital of ecstatic, grave and elegant love songs is a testament to the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson’s interpretive intelligence.

Accompanied by Peter Serkin and – in Handel’s duet “Son nata a lagrimar” – by countertenor Drew Minter, Hunt Lieberson’s intoxicating mezzo slides through several centuries of musical styles, closing the programme with Harry Thacker Burleigh’s “Deep River” and the theme song to ‘Baghdad Café’.

Pick of the album: The soloist as ensemble player in ‘Son nata a lagrimar’