In Danksagung an den Bach, one of 20 Friedrich Müller poems set by Schubert in his narrative song cycle Die schöne Müllerin, a lad arrives at a mill hoping for employment. Another attraction is that the miller has a pretty daughter. But the lad is painfully shy, and does the girl care?

The raw, all or nothing, pangs of young love were vividly brought out by tenor Mark Padmore (above) and pianist Paul Lewis in their Sheldonian performance of the song cycle for Music at Oxford. Much tenderness, and a touch of appropriate body language, were added to the line “Tell me, o brooklet, does she love me?” while “Love calls away suffering and worries” was infused with irony. In due course, opposition arrives in the form of a hunter, and here the lad was very plainly willing the unwelcome intruder back into the trees from whence he had appeared: “Remain in the forest, and leave the mills and the miller in peace!” Padmore spat out the words.

In an illuminating pre-concert talk, Padmore and Lewis emphasised the fact that Die schöne Müllerin was written for intimate, domestic performance. Not the least of their achievements was the retention of this feeling of intimacy in the Sheldonian — but every nuance was still projected with crystal clarity.

Padmore’s ability to hold a loud or soft, high or low, vibrato-free note is almost uncanny, and there is never a hint of the “look at me, aren’t I clever” manner displayed by some tenors. Another point made beforehand was that singer and pianist are equal partners in this work, and so it proved to be, with the two performers blending seamlessly, as, for example, Lewis mixed in the sounds of the mill stream.

The last song conveys the emotion of “smiling through tears”, we were told. I am sure many felt the same way after this consummate performance.