A particular highlight is baritone Simon Keenlyside’s Histoires naturelles...his suave storytelling rejoices in Renard’s mordant characterisations. But above all, subtly shaded, Martineau’s pellucid pianism holds the project gloriously together. The result is a jewel box of riches that sounds like a labour of love, and of a love requited.

Martineau, as one might expect, is the most wonderfully accomplished guide through musical and emotional landscapes in which the piano, more often than not, carries equal weight with the voice, deploying a vast range of dynamics and colour.

Martineau is of course the common denominator through the discs, whether evoking the shimmering orchestral colours in the piano version of Shéhérazade (which does, though, recruit a flute for the second number, La Flûte Enchantée), the rustic humour of the Chants Mélodies Populaires Grecques, or the pictorial impressions of Histoires Naturelles... there are far more treats here than disappointments.