This is an enchanting disc. Peter Cornelius is best remembered, at least in Germany, as the composer of the opera The Barber of Baghdad, which has prompted multiple recordings. But he regarded himself as a latter-day minstrel, writing Romantic words for the many simple songs he wrote. The most striking of the six groups of Lieder on this first disc is Op 3, which has the title Trauer und Trost (‘Mourning and Consolation’). In the spirit of dedication and hushed intensity – well brought out by the tenor Markus Shäfer – there is a foretaste of Mahler, though much simplified. The Mahler connection comes out too in the Rheinische Lieder, with a galloping 6/8 for the third of the group, ‘Am Rhein’, only the result is hardly as distinctive as Mahler. All told, the six groups involve no fewer than 24 songs, almost all of them barely two minutes long. Playing the disc, one is thus encouraged to go on from one to the next; each has its felicitous melody and provides a perfect match for Cornelius’s own verse, very conventional in a happy Romantic way, not least the six Brautlieder (‘Bridal Songs’). The result is a disc that compels you to like it as it is so full of charm. Altogether a delightful revelation.