Any questions, any questions at all, about the 600-odd songs of Franz Schubert? The authority to consult is the scholar-pianist Graham Johnson, either by way of his historic Hyperion Schubert Edition (37 CDs, recorded over the course of two decades, completed in 2005) or his magisterial Franz Schubert: The Complete Songs (Yale University Press, three volumes, 2008). For decades his ever-illuminating Schubertiades, joined by a who’s-who of British and international vocal recitalists, have been a fixture at Wigmore Hall, the jewel of London’s chamber-music venues. Anticipating the composer’s 229th birthday at the end of the month, Johnson returns to the Wigmore’s intimate space and welcoming acoustic in the company of the baritone Christopher Maltman. Their program under the heading “Bright Ring of Words: Myth, Fable and Folksong” is artfully selected for contrast and crosscurrents in a wide range of material—a perfect fit for Maltman, whose operatic personae range from Papageno to Wotan. He’s the kind of singer who spins yarns as hypnotically as he shapes a phrase. —Matthew Gurewitsch