“We find ourselves in a time when hope in a better future is indispensable throughout the world,” write Samuel Hasselhorn and Ammiel Bushakevitz. Here, as part of Hasselhorn’s ongoing Schubert 200 project, these distinguished performers explore hope (“Hoffnung” in German) through 20 of Schubert’s sunnier Lieder, mainly written in one of the happier chapters of Schubert’s life, from 1825-26.

In their perceptive introduction to this wonderfully absorbing album, they also point to a Schubertian paradox. Happiness for this ultimately hapless composer is either in the past or in the future. A “subtle melancholy, a bittersweet yearning” pervades even his more irenic songs, while “we hear glimpses of positivity, a little smile full of hope in his ‘sad’ songs”. 

This ambiguity informs these superb, finely calibrated performances that span many of Schubert’s classic subjects: the close connection between the realm of nature and human emotions; the remembrance of things past; then various poetic inspirations, including that of Shakespeare.

From the very first song, Im Freiem (In the Open Air), the striking synergy between Hassselhorn and Bushakevitz is immediately apparent. There is a captivating...