This is a performance tingling with nervous energy, with Bauer's baritone a strong and heroic persona throughout its considerable range.. Bauer's quick vibrato, and the taut tension in every rhythmic phrase and figure is matched by the clarity and short decay of Jos van Immerseel's early piano...Immerseel is alert to every rhythmic detail, every second of emphasis - and to the inner voices within Schubert's accompaniment.

Bauer is a thoughtful, personable singer who uses his words expressively. At forte his baritone has an incisive bite: say, in the horrified final climax of "Die Krähe"...He affectingly realises the bleak weariness of "Rast", and addresses the sleeping villagers of "Im Dorfe" with confiding tenderness.

a performance of great emotional force and directness...As the emotional intensity of the cycle grows, the particular qualities of this accompanist and his instrument become more and more effective in their support of the almost theatrical fashion in which Bauer, whose rich, accurate baritone is compelling throughout, identifies with the traveller's grief.