Goerne's brief is Schubert's settings of the brothers Schlegel, whose volatile character and life are amply and fascinatingly described in Johnson's introduction to the booklet. As ever in this series, there are songs that we should curse ourselves for neglecting for so long.
Among the few settings of August von Schlegel is the interesting Lebensmelodien, where the Swan and the Eagle engage in a colloquy – the one all tranquil, the other all disturbed – and are observed by doves on whom Schubert lavishes his most beautiful music. In the formal Wiedersehn, as Johnson avers, Schubert imitates the style of a Handelian aria. The second of three Petrarch translations prefigures, arrestingly, the mood of Winterreise.
When we come to brother Friedrich and the quasi-cycle Abendröte we're in an even more exalted world where Der Fluss, another of Schubert's miraculous water songs, Der Knabe, above all Die Rose, where the fading of the rose is a metaphor for lost virginity (this, movingly done by Schäfer), and Der Wanderer show just how willingly Schubert responded to Schlegel's imagery. About Goerne's singing as such, ably assisted by Johnson's playing, there are no reservations, particularly in the visionary Die Sterne, but as the CD progresses his interpretations can seem a shade soporific; one wonders if he has lived long enough with these songs to penetrate to their heart. His easily produced, slightly vibrant and mellifluous baritone and sense of Schubertian style make him a largely rewarding interpreter. The recording is superb.