Only last March I praised another young baritone, Jochen Kupfer, in this cycle. That was a full-price version of this much-recorded work. Now, at budget price, comes an even more desirable version. Richard Fairman liked this perceptive singer’s Schwanengesang (4/01); so did John Steane in his Singertalk (3/03) article on young German baritones. He has also recorded Winterreise for this label.

His voice, reminiscent of Fischer-Dieskau’s, also exhibits many of that master-singer’s stylistic virtues. He brings a keen, palpitating sound to the false expectations of the earlier songs: ‘Ungeduld’ is a particular success. A sadder timbre colours those moments of doubt in the middle of the work, before a proper plangency to the songs of sorrow culminates in arrestingly beautiful accounts of those two outright masterpieces, ‘Trockne Blumen’ and ‘Der Müller und der Bach’. This is interpretation of Lieder at the highest level.

Regarding the reading rather than vocal timbre, in many respects the performance recalls that of Wolfgang Holzmair in its sense of a vulnerable soul motivated by self-delusion pursued to its inevitable consequences. Gerold Huber, the baritone’s regular partner, adds to the disc’s merits by virtue of his wholly sympathetic playing, in ideal accord with Gerhaher’s view of the work. The recording itself is faultless. Listeners who want to hear the cycle for the first time need have no fear that they are will get anything less than the best, in spite of the asking-price. It is a performance that will stand the test of time and repetition.