Baritone gets top billing, as is usual for the singer, on this recording of 's song cycle , but equally important is the ensemble , contributing a string quintet and a pair of guitars as accompaniment to 's familiar songs about the fair maid of the mill. The arrangements are by , but this release was the product of a musical-theatrical presentation by , a group that has tried, so to speak, to bring classical music back to the barrooms, with performances of Baroque music in pub-like settings. It is hard to evaluate the recording without the theatrical context; the backing group is different from the usual ones offered by , and there is something of the flavor of two projects going at cross purposes. On the other hand, arrangements of all kinds were common in the 19th century, and even if a string quintet would be unlikely for an informal musicale, nothing here goes beyond the bounds of what is reasonable. has an appealing baritone, and as an introduction to the undoubtedly experimental spirit of , this album succeeds. It made classical best-seller charts in the holiday season of 2023. ~ James Manheim