Lemieux is on imperious form in Sea Pictures. Her rich contralto sits easily in Elgar’s writing…She is magnificent [in the Chausson], completely at home in the fleshy vocal lines of Maurice Bouchor’s poetry to crown a really impressive, satisfying disc.

It’s quite a rarity to hear a non-native English-speaker in Elgar’s great song-cycle, but the Canadian singer’s diction is impeccable throughout, and her plush contralto uncovers some rich, strange colours in songs which are more often the province of lyric mezzos these days (the high A of ‘The Swimmer’, for instance, sounds like a voice pushed to its limits in the best possible way). Part Debussy, part Wagner, Victorin Joncières’s ‘ode symphonique’ La mer is a real discovery, and fits Lemieux like a glove.