The baritone and his delightfully Goethean-named producer Wilhelm Meister stick strictly to the historical definition of the disc’s title, ‘Romantic Arias’, but come up with a most unclichéd repertoire list. The nearest to ‘pop’ items are two revisits to the role that, in the UK at least, has become Gerhaher’s calling card – Wagner’s Wolfram von Eschenbach. Elsewhere we get unfinished Schubert (his last opera, Der Graf von Gleichen, in Richard Dünser’s completion), Siegfried (from Schumann’s Genoveva), rare Nicolai (tell me you’ve heard of Die Heimkehr des Verbannten) and Lysiart’s storming vengeance aria – and Telramund marker – from Act 2 of Euryanthe. And some characteristically gutsy accompaniments under Daniel Harding. And an ingenious booklet-note, ‘Was Deutsch und echt’ by Michael Wittmann, which should be read carefully by all Wagnerians. (Was Wagner truly a lonely pioneer in his quest for a German opera free of French or Italian influence? Indeed he wasn’t.)

Encouraged by the disc’s challenging repertoire, let’s play the game of promoter. Which of these operas, excepting Tannhäuser and Euryanthe (which, as any fule kno, is a work of genius and should be in every house’s repertoire), would you rush to put on given the evidence of these performances? All are in Gerhaher’s best style, immaculately phrased and breathed, with considerable thought given to the text which is then fully characterised without mannerism. So a good case is made for all – but the Schumann scene and the Nicolai (replete with substantial cello solo) have the biggest contrasts and most substantial music drama. Schubert, even the almost-known Alfonso und Estrella, flatters to deceive as we hunt in vain for the drama of the Lieder and the orchestral colouring of the symphonies.

Not a programme to be played in one go – too much ‘noble’ suffering at andante-ish tempi that’s not broken up until Weber’s final raging – but a great source for dipping into the history of this period.