Many young and not-so-young singers can't abide Schwarkopf's interpretative style, which is strikingly at odds with the straightforward readings so often heard today. Playing devil's advocate, one can understand the nature of the complaints about her interventionist approach, her occasional distortion of vowel sounds and a general approach that William Mann once described as 'verschmuckt' (bejewelled). You may judge such views, for instance, in a song like Auf dem Wasser, where not a phrase is left to speak for itself; compare it with the natural and simple reading of her contemporary Irmgard Seefried (Testament), which is so much more appropriate to the song.
That said, the doubters should listen to this recital with Edwin Fischer, one of the greatest ever discs of Schubert singing. As so often in her recitals dating back to Oxford days in 1950, annoyance with the occasional mannerism soon gives way to wonder at such an amazingly eager response to every facet of a song and its setting.
And truly inspired by Fischer, she throws caution utterly to the wind and astonishes us in accounts of Die junge Nonne, Ganymed and Gretchen am Spinnrade that have seldom if ever been surpassed for vocal consistency and concentration – though it's a pity the singer makes a break in the final, long phrase of Ganymed.
Fischer, one of the noblest Schubert interpreters of his or any time, is obviously a partner in a thousand, and on his own confirms his stature in the legendary 1950 recording of the Momentsmusicaux better transferred here than ever before – as are the Lieder. So this is a CD no Schubertian can do without.