Ian Bostridge's singing of the Kosegarten setting Geist der Liebe, in praise of the spirit of love, marks him out as a Lieder artist of quite exceptional talent. Not only does he catch the elevated spirit of the text and its setting, he also imbues the song with that indefinable element of urgent spontaneity that singles out an inspired interpreter from merely a good one. This confirms the enthusiastic reports, not least from JBS, that followed Bostridge's London Winterreise not long ago. He is almost as winning in Liebesrausch, his next offering in this Schubertiade, a fragment ingeniously completed by Reinhard van Hoorickx. Here it's the eager, palpitating expression of the young lover depicted within that so delights the ear in Bostridge's lyrical, elating tenor.
In the very next song we hear John Mark Ainsley, the other remarkable tenor in this mixed programme of songs written by Schubert in 1815. This is another enchanting Kosegarten setting, Huldigung, a piece that Graham Johnson suggests is ''an older man, a Don Ottavio perhaps paying court to a Donna Anna''. Ainsley's elegant, airy performance of this gentle love-song certainly is that of an accomplished Mozartian, faultlessly phrased and spun on a flood of fresh tone. Immediately after, we hear Patricia Rozario, another of the quartet of young soloists here, giving a pure, touching account of the over-familiar but still miraculous Heidenroslein. Rozario's pure, slightly vulnerable sound is just right here. Her singing of the moving Totenkranz fur ein Kind, a Matthisson setting, finds her sounding the right elegiac vein for this eloquent piece. Elsewhere her singing occasionally seems curiously uneasy in effect.
The fourth singer is the bass Michael George. After his lugubrious account of the graveside elegy by Kosegarten, Schwangesang, my itchy fingers could not resist a recourse to Fischer-Dieskau in his 'complete' set (DG, 3/93), and it was there rather than in George's account that I found all the attributes so cogently described by Johnson in his notes. The same was true of yet another wonderful Kose-garten setting, Nachtgesang (always a Fischer-Dieskau favourite), where the British singer simply could not be expected to match the inflexions the old master brings to, for instance, the line ''trub und matt und mude''. Nor, for that matter, does Rozario make Alles um Liebe anything like as gripping as Fischer-Dieskau. Now, lest it be said that these comparisons are unfair, I should point out that the Fischer-Dieskau set is now at mid-price while, understandably, the Hyperion separate discs are at full price. As compensation, many of the tenor songs sound lighter, more natural in their interpretations here as compared with the baritone's counterparts.
Besides the solo items, there are—as befits a Schubertiade—a number of part-songs, martial, patriotic, amusing—none of much inherent value, musically speaking, but engaging enough to warrant inclusion here (with George providing the secure bass line). In several of these the main soloists are joined by yet another rising tenor, Jamie McDougall, who contributes strongly.
The indefatigable Johnson once more plays discerningly and writes authoritatively. Pleas for closer miking (such as is heard on the rival DG versions) seem to fall on deaf ears at Hyperion, but according to their own lights the recordings are carefully balanced. As a whole this is a pleasing addition to the Schubert Edition, with many other interesting if not exceptional songs I have no room to mention. One looks for more from the tenors on future issues.'