A blast of warmth from the icy north

LISE DAVIDSEN

the Sixties and Seventies, including Tim Hardin,

Buffy Sainte-Marie and Joni Mitchell. There is a strand of sophisticated easy-listening that features gendertwisting interpretations of songs made famous by Laura Nyro, Dionne Warwick and Carly Simon (half of the artists he covers are women) and a glorious tribute to gay glam rocker Jobriath. Morrissey’s singing is smooth, strong and tender on baroque arrangements that imaginatively overhaul the originals.

The question is whether Morrissey’s fans are in any mood to listen, having struggled to reconcile their idol’s “sensitive underdog” image with his Philharmonia Orchestra; cond. Esa-Pekka Salonen

Decca

Scandinavia has produced more than its fair share of great sopranos. Sweden has yielded Jenny Lind, Christina Nilsson, Birgit Nilsson, Elisabeth Söderström and Nina Stemme; Finland Aino support for Right-wing causes, including the English Defence League. Threatened anti-racism protests coincided with Morrissey cancelling UK dates last year, with little indication that he is keen to return. Morrissey’s punning new album title suggests the once proud Mancunian, Ackté and Karita Mattila; Norway Eidé Norena, Kirsten Flagstad – and now Lise Davidsen.

This 32-year-old prizewinner has already made an acclaimed debut at Glyndebourne, and this summer she makes her first appearance at the

BBC Proms. She has a phenomenal voice, combining warmth and power with solid technique and firm breath control.

One hopes that casting directors will understand that her fresh tone needs careful nurturing.

What is particularly exciting about Davidsen is that she seems so suited to the German romantic repertory – one can imagine now a resident in Los Angeles for 20 years, has swapped allegiances. His American fans, it must be said, seem largely unmoved by his opinions on Brexit.

But when reviewing Morrissey, should we focus on his politics or his music? At 60 years old (it was his birthday on Wednesday) he has been putting out consistently strong work for four decades, creating a catalogue that brilliantly evokes sympathy for the marginalised and struggling (often, admittedly, himself ). California Son’s selection features a wealth of subtly altered lyrics illuminating Morrissey’s values.

I suspect attention will be focused on his martial her as a glorious Isolde, and she has already proved her mettle in the title-role of Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos and as Elisabeth in Wagner’s Tannhäuser.

Both operas feature on her first solo recital disc, in which she is supported by the excellent Philharmonia Orchestra, lovingly conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. Elisabeth’s “Dich, teure Halle” is impeccably but cautiously done, and lacks the triumphant excitement that Lotte Lehmann brought to its climax; a sensitively paced account of Ariadne’s monologue “Es gibt ein Reich” is perhaps more successful, illustrating Davidsen’s rich lower version of Dylan’s Only a Pawn in Their Game, in which poor white men are manipulated by politicians exploiting racial divides. A more defensive message might be found in his interrogation of an individual’s choice to “Do what’s right or do what you are told” in Phil Ochs’s Days of Decision. “Ohhh,” sighs Morrissey, as if weighing heavy matters. “Decisions!”

Morrissey digs into material by some of the best Sixties folk artists

The Waterboys Where the Action Is (Cooking Vinyl)

The Amazons Future Dust (Fiction) register and careful attention to text.

A dozen of the more familiar Strauss songs follow. As a still-maturing artist, Davidsen has yet to put any individual stamp on what she sings, but there is much to relish here, particularly a “Wiegenlied”, gently floated on a perfectly sustained pianissimo and a solemnly magnificent “Im Abendrot” from the Four Last Songs that can rank with the legendary versions of Lucia Popp and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Davidsen may have some way to go as an interpreter, but her promise is boundless and the sheer beauty of her voice is enthralling.