We've become so used to high tenors and light-ish baritones in Die Schöne Müllerin that to hear Schubert's song cycle sung by dark-voiced bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff comes as a bit of a shock. The mood is one of implacable tragedy throughout. Quasthoff's bitter, powerful delivery of the cycle's second half, in which relationships come apart and suicide looms, makes for particularly disquieting listening, though some of the earlier songs are a bit short on the requisite sense of impulsive rapture.

The tense atmosphere is immeasurably heightened by the low keys Quasthoff adopts and by Justus Zeyen's brooding, visionary pianism. An uncompromising, possibly controversial performance that repays repeated listening.