Just to hear again Wolf’s masterful settings of Mörike’s beautiful poetry is a source of enormous pleasure: seldom has a composer so fully understood and empathised with a poet. To have these songs presented by two artists so fully able to comprehend the inner meaning of these inspired pieces is an added blessing. Few tenors – Karl Erb (back in the days of the Hugo Wolf Society), Peter Schreier and, more recently but sketchily, Ian Bostridge – have interpreted them, but none has surpassed Güra in his understanding of the idiom, and none has had a partner so aware of every nuance in the piano parts as Schultsz.

Together they box the compass of these far-ranging and inspired Lieder, by turns philosophical, love-enchanted, light-footed, dramatic and comic. From the quiet meditation of Gebet right at the start through to the cynical humour of Abschied right at the end the pair take us through an emotional trail that is ever-absorbing. In terms of vocal acuity Güra offers a wide range of tone, a specially vivid gift where word-painting is concerned, above all the sheer evenness and beauty of the singing.

Just to offer a few examples of the many delights encountered along the way, there is the spring ecstasy at the end of Er ist’s, the wonder of Im Frühling, the plangent tone in the famous Auf ein altes Bild, the spontaneous joy of Auf einer Wanderung, the erotic excitement of Begegnung, the blissful lassitude of Verborgenheit, the comic enactment of the drummer-boy’s dreams and – perhaps best of all – the inner wonder and broad intensity of the four master-songs about love beginning with An die Geliebte. Finally, in the nightmarish melodrama of Der Feuerreiter and the coyish humour of Storchenbotschaft, Schultsz’s virtuoso playing seconds the wide-ranging dynamics of Güra’s singing.

Everything in this thoroughly prepared and satisfying recital, given an open yet immediate recording, has been freshly imagined yet nothing is exaggerated, the verities of Lieder interpretation constantly observed. I cannot recommend this disc too strongly either to admirers of Wolf or to those who want to know why he can be among the most compelling of composers in the genre. Let’s have more from this source.