Oxford audiences are too polite to emit audible groans on such occasions, but some people must have been disappointed when they arrived at the Holywell: Christopher Maltman, due to sing Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin in the Oxford Lieder Festival, was off sick. His replacement was Robin Tritschler, lately a principal tenor with Welsh National Opera, and due to return there next year as Jaquino in Fidelio.

It has been argued that Wilhelm Müller’s poetry and Schubert’s settings in Die schöne Müllerin are as perfect a match as da Ponte’s libretto and Mozart’s music in The Marriage of Figaro. Listening to Tritschler’s performance, it was very possible to feel that this Müller-Schubert combination of words and music is indeed a marriage made in heaven.

“I heard a brooklet murmuring”, the opening words of the second song, were beautifully descriptive, while the following “Down and ever onwards” provided an expressive use of dynamics. Mill wheels roared at speed, while the now politically sensitive instruction: “Keep, haughty hunter, to your own preserve . . . and leave your yapping hounds at home” was delivered with zest.

As the 20 songs unfolded, it became evident that this cycle suits Tritschler’s light tenor voice very well. Moments to savour kept coming: he’s particularly good at the tender, in “Whenever love breaks free from sorrow” for instance.

My only niggle was that he could have allowed a little more space between songs: it would have been good to savour and store the atmosphere in each case before moving on.

But there was much more. The accompanist was Graham Johnson, widely regarded as the world’s greatest in this music. Assertive when appropriate, dropping behind the words – but always supportive – elsewhere, he was spellbinding. His performance alone was worth the price of a ticket. Altogether, it would be surprising if anyone who arrived expecting to hear Christopher Maltman still felt dissatisfied by the end of this concert.