This latest disc in the Hyperion Edition is an 1822 Schubertiad that begins and ends with some famous, some less famous, settings of Goethe, and intersperses solo songs with pieces for vocal ensemble. One of the least known of the Goethe pieces is Im Gegenwartigen Vergangenes (track 2), an enchanting piece for tenor and men’s voices, charmingly led by Ainsley. Two tracks on he tackles one of the best-known Goethe songs, Geheimes, on which Johnson expatiates at welcome length. Unfortunately the performance is a shade staid and careful: it doesn’t have the lived-in feeling, the eager smile in the tone that Hotter once brought to it on disc. Much later the tenor returns to give a free-ranging account (in slightly unidiomatic German) of a quite different kind of Goethe setting, the magnificently unbuttoned Willkommen und Abschied.
Christine Schafer once again wrings our withers, this time in the earlier and lesser-known version of Heiss mich nicht reden (she returns for an outgoing Musensohn, given a delightful lift by Johnson). Then we are introduced to the Dutch baritone Maarten Koningsberger in a long series of pieces. While admiring his warm, sensuous baritone, I have to record some disappointment in his interpretations. In the notes Johnson breaks a lance for an unusual reading of Sei mir gegrusst! as a death love-song, a la “Che faro” and suggests a quicker tempo than that we are accustomed to. In practice the speed seems on the slow side and the singer doesn’t quite make Johnson’s case for him. Then in two of Schubert’s most shattering songs of lost love, Du liebst mich nicht and Die Liebe hat gelogen, Koningsberger sounds merely lachrymose rather than heart-stricken as Schubert – and Johnson in his note – predicates. This time I didn’t make my comparisons with you-know-who, but went to Ferrier (live at Edinburgh) in the former and Karl Erb in the latter: they make these pieces as emotionally overwhelming as they should be.
In rather less demanding songs such as the literally grave song, Ihr Grab, and the unjustly neglected Goethe setting, An die Entfernte, the young baritone’s mellow timbre and exemplary line and diction count for much, but where the latter song is concerned, Schreier’s reading in Vol. 18 discloses the difference between good and great Lieder interpretation. For the rest, don’t miss the heart-easing quartet, Geist der Liebe, a Matthisson setting of resource, magically sung. There’s only room left to acclaim the consistent imagination of Johnson’s playing, the authority and detail of his notes, and the exemplary recording.'