For the second volume of their Schumann project, Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber turn to Myrthen, the wonderful wedding present Robert produced for Clara in 1840. It also sees the first contribution to the project by a ‘guest’ artist, and it’s maybe difficult, given the remarkable interpretative universe they create (as showcased especially in the Gramophone Award-winning Vol 1 – 2/19), not to see Camilla Tilling as a sort of interloper.

Happily, though, she’s a fine singer, her soprano bright and appealing (if occasionally a little glassy), and her interpretations well-turned and, especially as the cycle progresses, deeply touching (listen to her ‘Hochländisches Wiegenlied’, for example). She kicks off with a fresh performance of ‘Widmung’ and takes no time to find her place in Gerhaher and Huber’s world, working together beautifully with the pianist, whose rubato in such hits as ‘Der Nussbaum’ and ‘Die Lotosblume’ is meltingly seductive. If she doesn’t quite match, to my mind, the instinctiveness of Dorothea Röschmann’s fresh, impulsive and heartfelt singing on her recording with Ian Bostridge and Graham Johnson, Tilling nevertheless offers an effective, satisfying complement to Gerhaher’s own approach.

And there are certainly no disappointments from the baritone, who recaptures the wonderful feeling of studied spontaneity that made the first volume of the series so special. The slighter numbers are dispatched with a wit that is underpinned by an overall seriousness of purpose, and the forceful rhetoric of ‘Talismane’ is captured more successfully than by Bostridge and Johnson, whose slightly slower tempo adds an unwanted hint of portentousness.

The two Venetian Songs are gloriously relaxed; ‘Du bist wie eine Blume’ is almost unspeakably tender, as is ‘Zum Schluss’. And at the heart of the cycle Gerhaher and Huber present a supremely moving and powerful performance of the remarkable ‘Aus den hebräischen Gesängen’. Myrthen on its own might seem like short measure, but this is a rewarding second volume to what is growing into a superb series and certainly a top choice for this wonderful cycle.