Certainly, the very clever choice of songs on this album goes a long way to amplifying the notion that Oscar Hammerstein and Stephen Sondheim are linked by a genius for expressing the everyday commonplaces as well as the grandest flights of fantasy through song. The album opens with Sondheim’s ‘Something’s Coming’, building confidently from child-like anticipation, followed by Hammerstein’s ‘Oh, what a Beautiful Morning’. The latter, rather more earthy in naming the sources of wonder, is comparatively neglected by female artists. Not after this, perhaps, for Ford, following a spoken introduction that sets up her own visualisation of the scene, finds new meaning in what could so easily have been a hackneyed rehash. The strophic song can cause problems for singers who are not able to find new insights in repeated sentiments. Ford’s pauses after each ‘Oh’, her little laughs underneath the lyric and the way she resists the temptation to barnstorm out with the final ‘oh, what a beautiful day’ (she doesn’t even sing it) enable her to put a personal stamp on the song. The effect is to create a quieter (more feminine?) expression of joie de vivre and light up a new avenue of meaning passing from Oscar Hammerstein to new generations. There’s definitely something wonderful in that.

Ford’s refusal to grandstand is consistent. Whether because of its original composition or because of John Boswell’s arrangements, no song ends with a big finish. Crescendos are reached prior to the close and each item therefore ends reflectively, often with resignation about the way love can be fleeting and lovers fickle. This notion of the vagaries of love is amplified by some highly original combinations of seemingly disparate songs: who would have thought of combining a song from ‘The Sound of Music’ with one from the film ‘Reds’?, yet ‘Edelweiss’, recorded as simply and effectively as it possibly could be, earnestly expressing constancy and certainty, is poignantly contrasted with the fear of desertion and separation of ‘Goodbye for Now’; similarly, our insignificance in the overall scheme of things is set against the intense sense of purpose in expressing love for another person as ‘Two Little People’ is followed by ‘If I Loved You’.

Ford’s artistry lies in her absolute lack of artifice. Through conveying to us so openly her sense of wonder at loving, learning and simply being, she has added her own little something wonderful to life and our journey through it.