Written in 1827, Franz Schubert’s Winterreise (“Winter's Journey”) is one of the most influential song cycles ever written. At once extraordinarily beautiful and seriously unsettling, this portrayal of a spurned lover's descent into ultimate darkness is one of the finest marriages of music and words in the repertoire. The entire cycle, which lasts more than an hour, is comprised of settings of twelve poems by Wilhelm Muller. Schubert, whose tastes for text were usually spot on, was well attuned to Muller’s sensibilities by the time he created Winterreise, as the same poet had also inspired Schubert’s Die schone Mullerin cycle four years earlier in 1823.
The writing of Winterreise should be considered in the context of Schubert’s unbelievable achievements in writing for the voice. Over the course of his just 31 years of life, he penned more 600 lied (songs) characterized by clarity, innovation, and emotional immediacy. While in his instrumental compositions Schubert was prone to meanderings of “heavenly length,” as Robert Schumann fondly referred to them, Schubert’s songs distill the highest peaks and lowest depths of feeling into compositions that individually last just a few minutes each without ever feeling pressed for time or haphazard. The dozen songs of the harrowing “Winter's Journey” are perfect examples of that distillation, and take the performers and listeners on a shattering pilgrimage through jealousy, sorrow, and loneliness.
Unsurprisingly, Winterreise, which was written just a year before Schubert’s death at age 31, has become one of the absolute staples of the vocal repertoire.There is something so gripping and personal about this cycle that compels vocalists—and their equal partners, the pianists (who are so much more than mere accompanists) to grapple with Schubert’s work repeatedly over their careers. In fact, Winterreise is so much a centerpiece of the vocal repertoire that several iconic singers––and pianists too––have chosen to re–record the work at different points in their own life journeys.
Chief among them is German baritone Dietrich Fischer–Dieskau, who recorded Winterreise for commercial release no less than seven times, from his first (of two) traversals with pianist Gerald Moore in 1955, through his 1985 collaboration with pianist Alfred Brendel, who himself has recorded Winterreise twice, the second time with Matthias Goerne in a well–hailed 2004 release recorded live at London’s Wigmore Hall. (That’s not even to mention Fischer–Dieskau’s live recital recordings, starting with a 1948 concert performance with Klaus Billing, or for that matter, Moore’s own earlier work with another singer; even before recording with Fischer–Dieskau, the pianist had recorded the work with Hans Hotter the year before, in 1954. For Moore to record the work twice within such a short time frame, with two star artists, invited inevitable comparisons—and almost invariably, Fischer–Dieskau’s interpretation won critics over.
Although the cycle was originally intended for a tenor, it has become a staple not just for baritones as well, but even female singers have taken on Winterreise. They famously include soprano Lotte Lehman /albums/schubert-winterreise-(lotte-lehmann-pearl), who also created her own set of illustrations based on these twelve songs, Brigitte Fassbaender, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, and Elena Gerhardt are among those who transcended the barriers of both gender and convention to bring to bear their own interpretations of Winterreise.
The sweet-voiced tenor Werner Gura recently released his own traversal of this cycle as well, with pianist Christoph Berner; Gura's tone is so beguiling that one might fear that his voice would simply be too pretty for Schubert’s mad narrator. However, his actorly abilities are in great evidence; in “Erstarrung” (Numbness)”, the singer’s desolation is absolutely haunting in the lines “Mein Herz ist wie erstorben,/Kalt start ihr Bild darin (“My heart is as dead,/Her image coldly rigid within it”). Gura’s collaborator at the piano is equally attuned to the music’s subtleties.
Another very successful pairing is that of tenor Mark Padmore and pianist Paul Lewis, both of whom bring a dramatic relentlessness and punishing self-examination front and forward. The experience of listening to their performance is not so much a listening “pleasure” so much as it is a discomforting, and yet deeply rewarding, experience. Another starry duo, tenor Ian Bostridge and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, also emphasize text over a singing line to the point that some listeners might find overplayed; however, Bostridge does a spectacular job of proving that he can easily tackle the huge tonal range that Schubert demands.
For those looking for darker tonal shading, there are some very compelling options, including one by German baritone Christian Gerhaher, whose rich sound makes him a fine artistic descendant of Fischer-Dieskau; his budget recording for Arte Nova is quite excellent at any price.
Bass–baritone Thomas Quasthoff, long famous now for his magnificent sound, intepretive brilliance, and emotional intensity is another exemplary Winterreise performer, whose voice's deep hues makes Schubert's snowy journey even bleaker and more foreboding, if such a thing is possible. Regardless of which subtleties of performance you prefer, however, you’ll find that once Winterreise has you in its icy grip, you won’t be able to let go.
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by Anastasia Tsioulcas
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