Now in his mid-thirties, Pavol Breslik has made his name primarily as a Mozart and Donizetti tenor. On this showing he is also an attractive Lieder singer, if not yet a specially penetrating one. In the booklet Breslik cites Fritz Wunderlich’s famous DG recording of Die schöne Müllerin as an early inspiration. Although his sappy, youthful lyric tenor does not quite have Wunderlich’s liquid beauty of line, he shares the German tenor’s ardent freshness and clear, unfussy articulation of the words. Like Wunderlich, Breslik presents an essentially robust, outgoing journeyman miller, unlike the more vulnerable, introspective Werner Güra, with Jan Schultsz (Harmonia Mundi, 12/00) and, even more, the haunted, disturbed Peter Schreier, with András Schiff (Decca, 5/91). From the opening ‘Das Wandern’, the early songs exude eagerness and wide-eyed wonder. In ‘Ungeduld’, the cycle’s first climax, Breslik unleashes the full blade of his operatic tenor, with viscerally exciting top As. The climactic central ‘Mein’ has a similar open-hearted excitement, the yodelling quavers sounding like whoops of joy.

As the cycle progressed, though, I began to crave a wider range of colours, especially at the softer end of the spectrum, and a more concentrated inwardness. ‘Pause’, the cycle’s pivotal song and arguably its subtlest, is consistently forthright (compare both Güra and Schreier here). ‘Die liebe Farbe’ is touching in its wounded tenderness and pathos. But the three final songs, litmus tests in any Schöne Müllerin, all lack what I can only, inadequately, describe as spirituality. I hear no change of tone colour or feeling when ‘Der Müller und der Bach’ moves from bleak minor to consolatory major. And the five verses of the valedictory ‘Des Baches Wiegenlied’ need more variety to justify Breslik’s controversially slow tempo. Still, whatever my provisos, the gifted Slovakian tenor’s directness, sincerity and vocal finish always give pleasure. Throughout, Amir Katz is an able and sensitive partner, vivid in picturesque details such as the mocking horn calls of ‘Die böse Farbe’, though the forward recording of the voice can slightly compromise textural clarity.