Tenor Mark Padmore is certainly a glutton for work. Not content with a performance of Schubert's Winterreise, one of the most testing song-cycles in the repertoire, at this Wotton House concert he also gave an immaculately prepared and illuminating talk on the work beforehand: "Life was not looking cheerful for Schubert, when he composed Winterreise in 1827," Padmore began. The composer was ill, and indeed was to die, aged 31, a year later. It is almost impossible to believe now that not a single Viennese music critic bothered to turn up to a concert Schubert gave of his works in March 1828.

And as Mark Padmore set off on Schubert's Winter Journey - to give the song-cycle its English title - a sense of sadness was quickly apparent. There was an air of destiny and inevitability too, much the same feeling as I always get during the opening chorus of Bach's St Matthew Passion. Winterreise sets 24 poems by Wilhelm Mller, each different in character, so each requiring individual interpretation. From the opening Gute Nacht, for instance, you get the feeling of a traveller leaving on his journey, a traveller who feels that he is an outsider in the surrounding landscape. Further on, in Rast, the traveller feels the need to rest, but it is too cold to do so.

In Winterreise the piano is often used to highlight Schubert's genius at musical description: when the traveller gets lost in Irrlicht, for instance, the accompaniment brilliantly describes the timeless irritation and frustration of discovering that you have made the wrong choice at a road junction. Later, voice and piano combine to provide a really blustery Der strmische Morgen.

All this, and much, much more was provided by Padmore, and his first-rate accompanist, Simon Lepper. It is vital that you like the voice of a Winterreise singer, for you are going to become intimately acquainted with it as this work proceeds. To me, Padmore has exactly the right mix of flexibility, colour, and sadness for the music. It was a real privilege to hear this performance.