Edith Mathis has had a distinguished career stretching now over more than 20 years as an opera and Lieder interpreter. She has always made something of a speciality of Schubert, so that this disc is a welcome representation of her work in this field. As distinct from the now progressing Schubert Edition on Hyperion, her choice isn't particularly adventurous, but all the songs are sung with the unaffected, straight forward tone and manner for which Mathis has always been noted. It is a style particularly well suited to eager Suleika, sad Mignon and desperate Gretchen. These Goethe heroines find in this soprano an apt incarnation. She also finds the reserved yet moving emotions expressed in An die untergehende Sonne and the sombre feelings in the wonderful Am Grabe Anselmos, once a speciality of Dame Janet Baker. The lighter touch called for in such pieces as Die Rose and Lachen und Weinen is also there. The line, poise and simplidty of the singing in these and most of the other songs is entirely commendable and nowhere more so than in that miniature scene Der Hirt auf dem Felsen where Mathis's technique is quite equal to the technical demands here placed on it, even if one or two high notes do reveal signs of the passing years in a slightly strained effect.
Coincidentally, as with Ann Murray in her Hyperion Schubert recital (reviewed last month) Mathis has the sort of voice that can weary the ear a little over the space of a longish recital. It has something to do with the absence of tonal variety and an inability always to create the sense of intimacy required by Schubert. In a word, the sound becomes a shade relentless. Karl Engel provides experienced, though not especially vital, support. The recording is excellent, the booklet less so: the notes leave something to be desired and, for a few of the songs, the translation has been omitted.'