The Dutch baritone Henk Neven was part of the 2009 crop of BBC New Generation Artists, and his first disc, of songs by Schumann and Löwe, was widely admired. Though he has built up his reputation so far mainly as an interpreter of German song, his Wigmore recital with his regular partner Hans Eijsackers showed not only that Neven can tackle French songs equally persuasively, but that even within those repertoires he has a fondness for exploring works that other singers tend to overlook.

The second half of the recital was given over to French songs – to the least often heard of Debussy's Verlaine settings, the Trois Mélodies de Paul Verlaine, from the early 1890s, and to the first and last of Fauré's song-cycles, Poème du Jour and L'Horizon Chimérique. Neven showed that he can soften the crisp outlines of his voice that give such definition to his phrasing to produce a wonderfully honeyed legato that wrapped itself around Fauré's deceptively straightforward vocal lines, as well as suggesting in the boisterousness of Debussy's L'échelonnement des Haies, that he might have something special to bring to Poulenc's songs, too.

Neven and Eijsackers had begun with a half of Schubert – eight settings of poems by the composer's close friend Mayerhofer punctuated by single songs to texts by Goethe and Schiller. The connecting theme was water, making a neat link with L'Horizon Chimerique that was to come; by including the stark static Goethe song Meeres Stille, which Neven delivered with just the right degree of neutrality to allow its beauty to speak for itself, he conjured a moment of tranquility to precisely match the one Fauré creates in Diane, Sélené, the third song of that cycle.

An absorbing, wonderfully intelligent recital.