Hyperion’s Schumann Song Edition ends, as it began 12 years ago, with a recital devoted largely to the problematic late songs of 1849-52. With the odd exception, these have often been castigated, not least by Eric Sams in The Songs of Robert Schumann (Faber: third edition 1993), as the products of a torpid and increasingly sick mind. But though most of the songs on this disc tend to be more understated, less romantically subjective than those of Schumann’s great song year, 1840, the best of them are not necessarily inferior to their predecessors, just different.

There are undeniable duds, usually when Schumann is in hearty or heroic vein, alongside touching lyrics like the fragile “Heimliches Verschwinden”, the rapturous “Liebster, deine Worte stehlen”, or “Provenzalisches Lied”, a piquant celebration of courtly love.

The lion’s share of the programme, including the six Reinick Songs falls to baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann, whose singing is more notable for robust directness than subtlety. He exploits his deep bass resonances to good effect in “Sonntags am Rhein”, that quintessential song of pious Biedermeier contentment. But turn to Christian Gerhaher (RCA, 7/08) and you’ll hear singing of that much more imagination and variety. In “Liebesbotschaft”, Müller-Brachmann sounds lugubrious, despite the flowing tempo, rather than tenderly devoted. Compare the rapt inwardness of Gerhaher and Matthias Goerne (Decca, 1/05), both of whom sustain an intense line where Müller-Brachmann tends to swell into individual notes. He is at his best in declamatory, dramatic mode, recounting a minstrel’s bloody revenge in “Ballade”, or in a powerful and atmospheric performance of another chivalrous ballad, “Der Handschuh”.

Elsewhere there are welcome cameo appearances from Adrian Thompson (graceful and smiling in “Provenzalisches Lied”), Geraldine McGreevy and Stella Doufexis, who combine with baritone Stefan Loges in two attractive quartets from the Rückert Minnespiel. Katherine Broderick, a Wagnerian soprano of the future, impresses with her vibrant intensity in the three Op 95 songs, though even she and Johnson cannot disguise the bombastic tawdriness of “Dem Helden”. Whatever my provisos, this disc goes far to vindicating some of Schumann’s least-favoured late songs, not least due to Graham Johnson’s eloquent advocacy, in print and in performance.