Bejun Mehta (counter tenor), Julius Drake (piano) Harmonia Mundi HMC 902093***

This is likely to be a divisive release. The counter tenor as a vocal soloist hardly registered for more than a century before the arrival of Alfred Deller in the mid-20th century. But here is American counter tenor Bejun Mehta taking on a survey of 20th-century English song that's mostly from pre-Deller days. The fullness of the modern concert grand doesn't seem the best match for the slightly disembodied quality of the counter tenor, even one that can be as penetrating as Mehta's. And Mehta doesn't set off on the best foot in Howells's King David, where there are moments of pressured vibrato that grate unpleasantly. But things quickly improve, and the whistle-stop survey ranges widely, from Stanford, Vaughan Williams, Quilter, Gurney, Warlock, Finzi, Hely-Hutchinson, and Lennox Berkeley to arrangements of Purcell by Britten and Tippett. It grows on you. See url.ie/55ay