Crazy Girl Crazy is an album that – just like its muse and protagonist – flouts the rules…The litheness of Hannigan’s voice beguiles, so that the near-segue into the Lulu Suite (1934) comes as a sense-sharpening emotional jolt…It’s a highly personal, sensual reading; lavish with orchestral detail and, when it comes, a spellbinding ‘Lied der Lulu’.

The most versatile of stage performers, she not only sings on this disc, but conducts, whimpers and mutters, whispers and shrieks...Berg’s Lulu Suite gets a romantic performance, strong on limpid, singing lines from the Ludwig Orchestra.

Purists might jib at Hannigan’s reharmonization of Gershwin, complete with note rows and Ligeti tone clusters, though her vocals are exuberant and the playing stylish. It’s Sequenza III, however, written for Berio’s muse Cathy Berberian, that is the high point. Transposed upwards it acquires both an unnerving vulnerability and a tentative optimism.

An imaginative programme concept and excellent performances.

What strikes me about Hannigan’s performance [of the Sequenza] is its lucidity: the overall effect here is of a personality gradually warming into focus rather than disintegrating before our ears...Hannigan and Elliott play up the affinity between Berg’s jazz-inflected score and the big band sound-world of Girl Crazy so that the link (which could sound contrived on paper) comes across as entirely natural.

Hannigan opens this album with a reminder, in no shy terms, of what a stupidly seductive vocalist she is. She flits, warbles and giggles through Berio’s high-wire Sequenza III from 1965; she has a way of making everything just float...her fierce musicianship is never in doubt...her effortless style is bewitching.

Sequenza III comes up fresh and exhilarating...Her voice — more silver than sass — is hardly that of a music-theatre belter, but then that isn’t the point. Intelligent, invigorating, Crazy Girl Crazy is a madly compelling listen.

Ms. Hannigan can do so many things so well, and she does most of them here. She conducts and sings music from Berg’s “Lulu” and Gershwin’s “Girl Crazy” with predictable aplomb, but for me it is the sensuous and utterly uninhibited rendition of Berio’s solo “Sequenza III” that seals the deal.

This recording has astonishing clarity and close-up sound, giving Hannigan credible presence and audiophiles a genuine treat.