Christiane Karg / Gerold Huber, classical review: Fairy-tale wonders abound in a thrilling Schubert dip

​The song that ends Schubert’s Winterreise cycle is about a spectral hurdy-gurdy player, standing barefoot on the ice. “Will you grind your hurdy-gurdy to my songs?”, asks the poet-wayfarer.

It was an inspired idea of the German soprano Christiane Karg’s to open her fairytale-themed recital with the hurdy-gurdy man, effectively raising the curtain on a world of enchantment.

Songs by Schubert and Schumann in the first half, evoking ancient castles, malignant dwarves and forest birds – some from Dichterliebe, some from the op. 39 Liederkreis – were invested with a sense of breathless wonder and childlike excitement.

In Schubert’s Erlkönig she enacted the drama of the boy, the father and their frantic horse-ride, harried by the sinister figure of the Erl King, with skilful use of her vocal resources. Perhaps a baritone, especially a Fischer-Dieskau, could have deployed a wider range of colour, but Karg’s account was gripping in its own way.

Her piano partner Gerold Huber has the advantage of resembling Shock-headed Peter, and drawing on a repertoire of grimaces and extravagant gestures – not to mention a superlative technique – he brought all these tales of make-believe to vibrant life.

The theme continued in the second half with five songs by Pfitzner and a final group by Mahler, concluding with a spellbinding performance of Where The Shining Trumpets Sound.

With an imaginative concept underpinning the programme, plus singing and playing of the highest calibre, the evening was enchanting in every way.