Anyone smitten with lieder should have been at Zankel Hall on Tuesday night. Doing the singing was Michael Schade, the German-Canadian tenor; doing the playing was Malcolm Martineau, the British pianist. What is it about Brits and accompanying? We must leave that subject for another day.

Mr. Schade is famed as a Tamino, as a Tito — these are roles in Mozart operas. But he is one of our top lieder singers too, as he has proven in this city, not least. In October 2003, he sang Schubert’s “Schöne Müllerin” in Alice Tully Hall. That was a supreme musical experience.

More than once, I have called him “a Wunderlich of our times” — the reference is to Fritz Wunderlich, the German tenor who died in 1966 — and he has earned it.

At Zankel Hall, Mr. Schade sang a program of Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, and Wolf, and the evening had an organizing principle: All songs treated poems of Joseph von Eichendorff (1788–1857). Just about every performer wants an organizing principle in his recital or concert — there is some musicological need. But an audience member could have thought of this program as a nice mix of lieder.

Mr. Schade began with Schumann’s “Liederkreis,” Op. 39, a set of 12 songs. And he quickly showed that he was in fine form.

He is a confident singer, and has a lot to be confident about. The voice is beautiful — sometimes unbelievably beautiful — and the technique is well honed. Mr. Schade just about never pinches, never strains. There is nothing tight about him — and tenor is supposed to mean tight!

Moreover, he sang “Liederkreis” with true understanding, giving the songs proper character but also exercising restraint. There was not much soup in these interpretations, no swooning around. Also, his German is a pleasure to listen to — perfectly clear, but not overenunciated, if you know what I mean. Mr. Schade does not sock you with consonants.

“Mondnacht” is one of the most famous of Schumann’s songs, and the pianist, Mr. Martineau, began it with lovely gentleness. When the tenor entered, he used the same quality. I believe the song should have had a steadier pulse, but these guys were still satisfying in it. And when singing “In der Fremde,” Mr. Schade pumped out the volume, arrestingly, but did not push.

I have complained about the pulse in “Mondnacht,” or more like caviled about it, and you could cavil some more: “Frühlingsnacht,” that wonderful, ecstatic song, could have had more wonderfulness, more ecstasy. And Mr. Schade did just a bit of shouting in it, albeit musical shouting.

But, as I said — cavils.

After intermission, Mr. Schade sang his Mendelssohn set — four songs — and then his Brahms set (another four). One is amazed at how easy the act of singing seems for Mr. Schade. I once heard Leontyne Price say to a fresh-voiced and unstraining student — a tenor, actually — “It’s like falling off a log for you.” So it is with Mr. Schade.

He closed his program with Wolf, beginning with “Der Musikant,” which had winning sly humor. And the final item was “Seemanns Abschied,” one of the great sea songs. Here, Mr. Schade demonstrated the kind of robustness, heft, and emotion you can get away with in lieder — yet he was always the tasteful lyric tenor.

Besides which, he was not done with Wolf: For his first encore, he sang “Die Nacht,” hugging the line — the melodic line — superbly. He had a touch of trouble on a soft high note, suggesting that it was time to go home. But Mr. Schade sang another encore, Schubert’s “Musensohn,” and sang it well: in high-energy, freewheeling, almost jazzy fashion. That’s the sort of singing it can feel right to do at encore time.

Incidentally, New York ears have been kissed in recent days by two Wunderlichian tenors: Matthew Polenzani has been singing the role of David in Wagner’s “Meistersinger” at the Metropolitan Opera.

And a closing word, about the audience: I almost never mention the size of the audience, be the house full or empty. But I could not help noticing that there were many vacant seats at Zankel Hall on Tuesday night. This was strange, given who the singer was, and what the music was. Many people imagine that there is no one good today, that they have to sit at home with their records and memories.

Well, maybe future generations will sit at home with their records of Michael Schade.