Schubert's output of songs is so vast and diverse that it is easy to select entire themed programmes from it. This one focused on Schubert through the seasons, though one or two items only made it in by virtue of a glancing reference to winter or spring towards the end of the third stanza.

Graham Johnson, the most knowledgeable and expert of accompanists, is imaginative in devising programmes, and his playing - characterful, precise and delivered with a wide palette of tone - was the most distinguished element here. By his side, the German soprano Christine Schäfer seemed a good deal more tentative, singing with the music on a stand in front of her and occasionally with her eyes glued to the score rather than expressing its contents to the audience.

She suffered, too, from the limitation that her voice, essentially a soubrette, has a small range of colour and a range of dynamics that is little more extensive. Though her diction was clear, she is not one of those artists able to home in on a word and make its meaning intense and inescapable. These are fundamental skills in lieder, where expressiveness and detail are vital.

There were some successes nevertheless, particularly in the more improvisatory songs, such as An den Mond in Einer Herbstnacht, an extended reflection on sorrow and mortality on a moonlit autumn night. Here and in the equally reflective Der Winterabend, set on a winter's evening, Schäfer explored the emotional territory with some sense of direction.

Elsewhere, including in such well-known songs as Ganymed and Litanei, there was little engagement with the text or with the music's character. Some of the livelier numbers - such as the Erntelied and Der Musensohn - suffered from a distinct lack of energy. But the fundamental problem was that Schäfer's decent musicianship was rarely allied to a searching, interpretative approach.