Christopher Maltman follows his superb Dichterliebe (5/01) with an equally authoritative and deeply felt reading of the Heine Liederkreis. This cycle, yet another inspired product of 1840, Schumann’s glory year, is performed with a full understanding of Heine’s eloquent poetry and the composer’s wonderfully apt settings. In the larger-scale songs, Maltman’s baritone expands with just the right touch of operatic confidence; in the quieter, more intimate pieces, he sustains a true legato and sings with suitably plangent tone. In all, he gives just the appropriate emphases to the text. He is partnered in exemplary fashion by Graham Johnson.

Surrounding this splendid performance is a large collection of the composer’s juvenilia, some odd fragments and a few later, seldom-performed songs. The early pieces mostly come before the cycle and are sung, with four exceptions, by Mark Padmore, now making a welcome appearance as a Lieder artist. His light tenor, fine technique and good German make his performances estimable, but not even his sound advocacy makes me think I shall want to hear many of them a second time, Erinnerung and Hirtrenknabe, both with intimations of better things to come, perhaps excepted.

After the cycle, the relatively familiar Der frohe Wandersmann and the interesting ballad Die rote Hanne, both sung with skill beyond his years by Jonathan Lemalu, stand out from lesser material. Completists will be pleased to have the music otherwise unavailable on CD, but others who will want to hear Maltman in the cycle may not be encouraged to buy the disc by the inclusion of songs that even he and Lemalu cannot rescue from possibly deserved obscurity. The recording is as excellent as in all this series – and, of course, Johnson’s notes are a customary boon, particularly here in placing the unusual items in the context of Schumann’s life and works.