THE young German baritone Andreas Schmidt stood in yesterday at fairly

short notice for the billed artist Uwe Heilmann, who had to cancel

because of a throat infection. The programme, consisting solely of

Schubert's song cycle, Die Schone Mullerin, was unchanged.

And it sounded, at the opening of the first of the 20 songs,

distinctly unpromising. Pianist Geoffrey Parsons launched what appeared

to be a rather heavy-handed, bass-orientated, and almost clumpy

accompaniment. It quickly became clear, however, that this was entirely

in keeping with Schmidt's initial portrayal of the eventually tragic

young man as an earthy character, definitely of rough peasant stock.

It was also the beginning of what evolved into a fascinating

characterisation of a young, carefree lad, bewitched into lyricism at

his first awareness of the maid of the mill. Schmidt and Parsons gave a

quite enthralling account of developments: of the flickering pulse of

excitement in Ungelduld; of the charming ''look at but don't touch''

sense of gaucherie in Morgengruss; of the youth's turn to poeticism in

the succeeding song; of an earthy exultancy in Mein; and then down

through irony, concern, anger, frustration, and desperation as it all

goes wrong.

In other words, it was a very human interpretation by these two

performers; beautifully gauged in its development, sensitively and

fatefully resolved. Schmidt is only in his early thirties, but he has a

measure of this difficult cycle, and his performance yesterday suggests

that he will develop into a very mature interpreter; according to the

programme booklet, his future plans include a recording of the song

cycle. Possibly one to watch out for.