When the stars align, in art as in astronomy, the results can be exhilarating and revelatory. This winter in Melbourne, as July’s ice began making itself felt, you could hear some of the greatest music ever written out of seasonal and psychological darkness – Franz Schubert’s three song cycles, Die schöne Müllerin (The Lovely Miller-Girl), Schwanengesang (Swan Song), and Winterreise (Winter Journey). And by serendipity (plus some inspired scheduling by the Melbourne Recital Centre), you could also hear and read a new generation of Schubert exponents and scholars reminding us just how profoundly these songs, composed almost 200 years ago, speak to us now.