Gura and his fortepianist, Christoph Berner, have mapped out a trajectory of the Romantic view of human emotional life...At each stage, both musicians show perfect sympathy with Schubert's own engagement, ideal empathy with each other, and a shrewd sensitivity to musical and expressive scale.

Gura is never dull. 'Der Wanderer' is intensely 'lived', the opening bleak and desiccated...One of the most eloquent performances of all is the last song, 'Nachtstuck'...Here, singer and pianist show an acute sensitivity to harmonic colour that characterises this whole rewarding recital.

Gura's strong, unaffected tenor voice is a pleasure to listen to, and Berner, who has an impressive keyboard freedom grounded in reliable technical skill, is a responsive accompanist: they perform as one, although too often their approach to a song somehow misses an essential quality of that particular piece of music.

It comprises 19 songs, all stylishly and beautifully sung by the tenor Werner Güra. The six Goethe settings include such familiar contrasts as Heidenröslein and Ganymed, while Willkommen und Abschied itself, more of a rarity, is heroically sung. The strength of Güra’s tone without any loss of quality has always been his strong point.

His fresh lyric tenor combines well with Berner’s bright yet warm-toned fortepiano — he twinkles at Goethe’s ironic description of a water nymph as “eine feuchtes Weib”, literally a “damp woman” — while Berner brings drama to the piano parts of Auf der Bruck, Willkommen und Abschied and the haunting, yearning Herbst.

Berner, playing an 1872 Rönisch fortepiano, shows keen attention to every detail. Güra, outstanding in his unfussy, intense delivery, is a formidable, rousing guide.