Though Schubert’s great song-cycle has had its day with period instruments, this recording has some differences that allow it to stand as an important alternative to the recent, starry, traditional-instrument Winterreise recordings. The instrument at hand is a a restored Brodmann Hammerflügel made around 1810, tuned in an unequal temperament in a manner that was described as ‘uneven hovering’, and the songs are sung in the original keys, which vary considerably from how they were published. For example, the contrast between E major in the nostalgic backwards look of ‘Der Lindenbaum’ with the grim present of ‘Wasserflut’, restored to its original key of F sharp minor, gives an appropriate sense of turning the page, starting a new chapter in the journey.

Performance-wise, Kobow tends to stand back and let the music do much of the work – an admirable approach for a recording whose general tack is showing what’s really there in the piece. So its playing field is about as far as one can get from the more operatic approach exemplified by Jonas Kaufmann’s excellent Sony recording, though not going quite for the intimately scaled Schubert of James Gilchrist. You don’t have to know that Kobow is a native German-speaker to feel an extra authority in the way the phrases follow the subtle lead of the text’s nuances. The voice itself is slim and non-operatic, with a control of vibrato and breath support that allows some wonderfully expansive interpretative options. Some of the more hectic songs, such as ‘Rückblick’ and ‘Mut!’ fare less well because the voice simply isn’t suited to higher-velocity music. However, the final songs, expressing numbed resignation, come off beautifully thanks to the simplicity of Kobow’s delivery, which has just the right kind of implication for the listener to conjure up the spare but vivid scenes described in the words – seconded by Hammer’s ability to subtly characterise the music’s imagery. Period performances can feel expressively restricted. This one does not.