In the world of chamber music it is a special attraction when two leading performers from different disciplines come together. Give-and-take is what this corner of classical music is all about and new combinations invariably throw up interesting results.

On Thursday, a song recital at the Wigmore Hall brought together pianist András Schiff and baritone Christian Gerhaher. Schiff is well remembered at the Wigmore for when he was accompanist to the tenor Peter Schreier and there was obvious promise in hearing him teamed with the most valued of today's younger Lieder singers.

In recordings with his regular accompanist Gerhaher is the most intimate of singers. At first, this performance of Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte started off in the same vein, almost under-sung, though it gained in power towards the end, no doubt galvanised by Schiff's strongly Beethovenian playing.

In a solo interlude Schiff gave a splendidly thrusting performance of Schumann's Fantasy in C. Though he was nothing like as relentless as Lang Lang was recently in the same piece, Schiff did not restrain himself from some occasional banging as the music's improvisatory fervour swept him along. It was interesting, too, to hear Schumann's original thoughts on how the Fantasy should end.

For all that, the fascination of the evening came in the pair's Schumann songs after the interval - the four Lieder und Gesänge aus "Wilhelm Meister" and, especially, their Dichterliebe. Here, Gerhaher aspired to reproduce his customary subtlety on a larger scale. In the quiet songs he sang with the same hushed intimacy, floated on lyrical tone of the utmost tenderness, that makes his recording so memorable; whereas in the more outgoing songs he summoned his full strength to fill the hall.

Schiff played much as he used to for the highly-strung Schreier, restlessly lighting upon an inner part of the texture here, a rhythm or change in the harmony there, and thrusting his ideas into the foreground. The problem was that his insistent creativity kept taking attention away from Gerhaher's simpler style. Fine though it was to hear a pianist of Schiff's calibre in Schumann's all-important accompaniments, we were listening to two distinct performers, each of the highest quality, rather than a single shared vision.Tel +44 20 7935 2141