Peter Harvey is a baritone whose name has become familiar over the last few years, mostly in association with Bach and with his concert work abroad, principally in France. Introducing himself now as a Lieder singer on record with Winterreise might be seen as presumptuous but, if so, no such thought occurred to me during the course of a performance which arouses sympathy from the start and never forfeits that rare and special kind of interest which is brought into play only with a sense of complete and urgent identification between the composition and its performers. The other recording, I’m afraid, can be used in a combined review such as this only to point up the exceptional merits of its competitor. They are of a kind that comparison inevitably brings to the fore, going to the heart of Lieder singing – that is, to the heart itself. Hilz and Sellheim set out on their journey as though with a proclamation that they have no heart. They step out briskly with determination to keep moving; by comparison Harvey and Cooper are almost laid-back in movement and manner. But almost immediately the regularity of movement by the first pair begins to suggest nothing more than insensibility. While at every phrase in those long opening verses we know with the other performers that here is a man to whom life in all its detail matters. This traveller sees the weathervane, hears the call of the linden tree, feels his weariness, gazes into the fading light of the three suns.

Moreover (and this is important even in this realm of high art), Peter Harvey sings with the voice of humanity. His tone admits a degree of vibrancy – he has known something of life. Christian Hilz’s tone, by contrast is dry; his manner has something of the lawyer’s factuality. It suits his partner’s inflexible style and is in marked contrast to the small but persistent imaginative freedoms which Gary Cooper allows himself. Cooper’s prize is that when he comes to the great test – the marvellous, unforgettable sound-image of the organ-grinder – he leaves us, uniquely (as it seems) in full and rightful possession.

Among the “insignificant” points of resemblance may be included the mundane facts that the names involved are not of the starry variety, and neither are the record labels among the long-established best-sellers. Adjustments may be required.