This is a most distinguished account. Gerhaher’s voice, a fairly light baritone, retains its youthful sound and his articulation is superb – this is someone living the words, not reporting on the miller’s journey…Huber is a marvellous pianist, urging the story along to riveting effect.

Gerhaher is often so inside the character that each phrase feels loaded with meaning without sounding overloaded…The biggest dividend to Gerhaher’s approach is any number of moments where you feel part of the protagonist’s thought process, as he hatches ideas on the spot. How often does that happen?

The outstanding lieder singer of his generation has consolidated his position: the voice may sound more mature, but he conveys the youth of the despairing apprentice, in love with the fickle Fair Maid of the Mill, through artistry and vocal inflections as much as through the tone and colour of his voice, his eloquent diction matchless among contemporary singers.

Gerhaher at the peak of his abilities, with his marvelous accomplice Mr. Huber, singing Schubert. Need one say more? Probably not, except that their decision to weave in the Wilhelm Müller poems that Schubert did not set is a masterstroke, especially when read with such musical sense by Mr. Gerhaher.