Just 23 when this recording appeared on the Bridge label in 2020, tenor Brian Giebler was already getting attention as a rising singer. This release will only help him along, for it combines beautiful singing with intelligent repertory choice and fine insight into some unusual works. The album earned a Best Solo Vocal Grammy nomination in 2020. The all-English program opens with Ivor Gurney’s Ludlow and Teme, published in 1923 but written much earlier. The work sets texts by A.E. Housman and is for the novel combination of tenor, string quartet, and piano, and Giebler appropriately reins in his powerful voice to balance with the instruments and with the classical simplicity of Housman’s texts. There are important works by Britten, not heard as often as they should be; these include the cycle Fish in the Unruffled Lakes. It has probably been neglected because it was put together from works discarded from other projects, but it has many striking moments, and Giebler digs into the subtle W.H. Auden texts, shifting gears effectively from the Housman. Giebler brings together talented players and singers throughout, as one can hear in Britten’s Canticle II, Op. 51, where countertenor Reginald Mobley is highly effective in the work’s quiet drama. There are also songs by Peter Warlock, John Ireland, Roger Quilter, and contemporary composer Ian Venables, not a one of them receiving anything less than Giebler’s full attention. The texts are unified by the theme of unrequited love, made emotionally immediate in a modern way in the Venables song. Rather cavernous sound from a collegiate concert hall is one of the few features marring a very affecting album.