John Tomlinson, celebrated Wagnerian bass and operatic phenomenon who can scale a vast orchestra with a whisper, has turned to that most intimate of forms: Lieder, or one man and a piano.

Surprise, curiosity and affection drew an attentive crowd to St John's, Smith Square, to hear him tackle Winterreise, the haunting song-cycle completed by the dying Schubert.

The pianist, David Owen Norris, at times had a fancy for somewhat different tempi but made the most of the drained colours and explosive modernity of the piano writing.

This setting of 24 poems by Muller is the highest of Lieder peaks, as well as the bleakest.

But Tomlinson has always been a fearless musician and his performance, even hampered by a cold, was heartfelt and often revealing.

Usually performed by a tenor or baritone, Winterreise is as irresistible for a singer as Hamlet or Lear for an actor.

No wonder Tomlinson wanted to inhabit this great role, so different from those he is used to. He was at his finest in songs that sat comfortably within his vocal range, avoiding worn patches.

He has, after all, had an opera career of some 32 years, roughly the age of both poet and composer when their short lives ended.

The moments to relish were those in which Schubert celebrates nature, brief joy amid the agony of the lover's despair: this green leaf, that flower, the Linden tree, a crow, the hope of spring.