Casper David Friedrich’s painting The Wanderer Above The Sea Of Mist has been trotted out for countless album covers, but for Austrian baritone Florian Boesch’s latest collaboration with Roger Vignoles it couldn’t be more appropriate. From the English pianist’s gloomy opening chords we almost feel the fog that enshrouds the mountains and valleys surveyed by the figure on his lonely crag. Boesch’s gentle, expressive baritone paints in the hopeless despair of a man who wanders “silent and joyless, and my sighs forever ask: Where?” That’s the Wanderer of D489, but this collection of 19 songs is not all Weltschmerz, although Boesch does resignation very well with his lovely sotto voce. In Aus Heliopolis II we hear a more assertive narrator and Auf der Bruck has singer and piano cantering along. 

Schubert is a competitive market at the moment. So why buy this one? Well, Boesch is a compelling singer. He already has Winterreise and Die Schöne Müllerin under his belt with accompanist Malcolm Martineau (who has recorded the same repertoire with Bryn Terfel), but he and pianist Vignoles have a great chemistry. This complements their previous outing of songs by the lesser-known Carl Loewe.

Boesch’s lines are poetic and beautifully nuanced, less full-blooded than Terfel but equally valid. Highlights include the duo’s noble handling of the poem Abscheid (Farewell) by Schubert’s friend Johann Mayrhoffer, nicely paired here with the two Wandrers Nachtlieder by Goethe. It’s worth remembering that Schubert never moved further than 200 miles from Vienna in his short life so these settings must have been a form of escape for him. Boesch brings out that sense of yearning on this beautiful album.