Schubert’s songs often subvert ideas of high art byusing the simplest musical material to fathom spiritualdepths.

The four hymns that open Ian Bostridge’srecital, for example, match music of the greatesteconomy to profoundly moving words by Novalis,while the haunting quality of ‘Der Tod und dasMädchen’ (‘Death and the Maiden’) arises directlyfrom its insistent melodic and rhythmic repetitions.