This twenty-fourth issue in The Hyperion Schubert Edition brings together twenty-seven of the numerous Goethe-settings made by Schubert in his short life. Poems by the German master—poet, playwright, artist, scientist, philosopher, politician—flooded into the creative conscience of the young composer. Included is the completion by Eugene Asti of an unfinished masterpiece, Gesang der Geister über den Wassern D705, never before recorded. Christine Schäfer (in her debut recording), John Mark Ainsley, Simon Keenlyside, Michael George and the London Schubert Chorale join the accompanist and director of this series, Graham Johnson.

All of the music on this album is also available as part of the specially priced box set The Complete Songs of Franz Schubert: ‘This is an archive of glorious Lieder singing as much as it is a definitive treasury of the greatest Lieder ever composed’ (The Guardian).