Erica Jeal [Guardian, 26 April 2006]

It is hardly surprising that Goethe, the quintessential German Romantic, should have inspired Schumann to some sublime song settings. But one revealing aspect of this recital, which brought baritone Christopher Maltman and pianist Graham Johnson together for the third in Johnson's mini-series looking at Schumann's poets and contemporaries, was that it took some of his less celebrated, less consistent colleagues to even greater heights.