‘Recorded here for the first time’ claims the booklet to this new recording‚ referring to the first 17 of the 22 tracks. One’s natural reaction is to conclude that there must be a catch somewhere‚ for have not all of Schubert’s songs been netted by Graham Johnson in the Hyperion Schubert Song Edition? The answer is that these 17 constitute ‘The Therese Grob Songbook’ and in this version are indeed new to the catalogues. Therese Grob was the baker’s daughter with a kind heart and a beautiful voice but not much to look at‚ who won Schubert’s adolescent heart for about two years‚ 1814­16. The story is that on her 18th birthday he presented her with a collection of 16 songs by himself with another song‚ Die Klage‚ possibly of her own composition‚ which she later bound together as an album. The copies differ in small but interesting details from printed editions‚ and it is in this respect that the recording is a ‘first’. The Songbook is said to be now in private hands and more widely known only through a limited facsimile edition. Graham Johnson was evidently well aware of it‚ some of the differences being mentioned in his notes‚ and to use it as a ‘theme’ for one of his volumes was clearly an option. Instead he incorporated the songs‚ using the printed version‚ in as many as seven discs‚ each with a ‘theme’ of its own. To most listeners the value will lie less in the textual differences than in the collection as such. It focuses attention‚ musically and biographically‚ on Schubert in this phase of his life. The five additional songs from the same period include Gretchen am Spinnrade‚ which stands out as supreme among them but also attunes the ears to a finer appreciation of the others. As for the performances‚ they are the work of accomplished and sensitive musicians. Dorothee Jansen’s voice is aptly warm and maidenly‚ and she is not deceived by the apparent simplicity of the songs (many of them strophic). Francis Grier is probably better known to most of us in other capacities – as choirmaster‚ composer and organist – but his style here is both graceful and authoritative. There are some surprises: the Gretchen‚ for instance‚ is taken at a fast tempo (more riding than spinning)‚ and their Herbstabend is turbulent enough to recall momentarily Die junge Nonne. Some of the songs – Pflügenlied and Edone among them – are more properly a man’s and come off better in performance by Prégardien and Johnson in Volume 23 of the Hyperion Edition (7/95). But this inaugural issue of Somm’s ‘New Perspectives’ series earns its welcome and raises expectations.