Wolfgang Holzmair, at the very end of this all-Schubert recital, sang one extra song as a well-deserved tribute to John Ruddock, who first brought him to Ireland in 1992. It was Die Taubenpost (Pigeon Post), one of Schubert's most seductively soothing songs and a favourite of Ruddock's. The singer lavished all his artistry on it and, though it is not one of the greatest songs, he made it worthy of the company it kept.
This company included many cheerful songs in the composer's characteristically rippling vein, but also more profound ones like Auf der Donau (On the Danube), Am Meer (By the Sea), Ganymed and Wandrers Nachtlied (The Singer), which is almost a drama, but on the tiniest scale.
As an accompanist, Russell Ryan was discretion itself; if he never put a foot wrong, he didn't take any risks. In some of the songs this approach was all that was needed, but in Ganymed, where the piano should compete with the voice to reinforce the sensation of striving upward, there was no tension, and the performance was more anodyne than others I have heard.