Winterreise

The artists write: “On this recording, we open up the complete original music set for the voice in Franz Schubert’s “Winter Journey” to the two wind instruments oboe and bassoon. We play Winterreise from an inner conviction – it draws us in and will not let us go. After we had played some of these Lieder at home for the first time, we could not resist them. We were seized by the ambition to arrange this setting with oboe, bassoon and piano, and make it as intensive and expressive a version of Winterreise as we could. We set out to show that the two instruments breathe, even sing, just as naturally as the human voice. The poetry of Wilhelm Müller should on no account be dismissed or disregarded for that reason. On the contrary, we rely on the subconscious recall of the sung words – by us and by our listeners – in order to bring out convincingly in instrumental sound the ideas inseparably associated by Franz Schubert with Wilhelm Müller’s poetic narrative. We were carried away by the euphoria of making this music, by the gloomy, despairing mood full of yearning and desire. Where such an emotional journey can lead is evident only when one has lived it every step of the way. We all belong to one family and yet in the past we had very little opportunity to make music together. Each one of us was harnessed to their own career path and it was seldom possible for us to come together as a group. The worldwide Corona crisis has suddenly jerked us to a kind of “emergency stop”. That has allowed us to grow together again as a family, not just physically but artistically too.”

Of all the classical song cycles, Schubert's 'Winterreise' is perhaps the most beloved. Baritone Michael Wilmering and pianist Daan Boertien give a new, deeply emotional charge to the music, which, in these uncertain times, seems to be a compass for a future whose contours are not yet entirely clear. Adversities are there to be overcome and in this new TRPTK release, we hear two young talents give a contemporary vision of this timeless music. A refreshing interpretation that, perhaps more than many others, directly touches the listener and takes him or her by surprise.

On their new GENUIN CD, baritone Florian Götz and the musicians of the Grundmann-Quartett dare to present well-known works in new contexts: they perform Franz Schubert's moving „Winterreise” in a version in which the vocal part is accompanied by English horn and string trio. Exciting chromatic worlds open up, and the moods of the individual songs take on new plasticity and tremendous expressive power. The subtle arrangement by Eduard Wesly, the uniquely personal baritone voice of Florian Götz, and the nuanced tonal mixtures of woodwind and strings all contribute equally to this.

Im Herbst 1827 komponierte Franz Schubert nach Texten von Wilhelm Müller seinen Zyklus »schauerlicher Lieder«. Günther Groissböck, basso cantante aus Überzeugung, interpretiert alle 24 Lieder in der klassischen, handelsüblichen Version für tiefe Stimme.

From the first notes, the snowy steps of "Fremd bin ich eingezogen" (As a stranger I arrived), the new recording of Schubert's "Winterreise" by the GewandhausChor makes one sit up and take notice: Choirmaster Gregor Meyer has arranged one of the most paramount lieder cycles for his "instrument", the choir, and makes virtuosic use of the possibilities offered by the ensemble's polyphony and sonority. Meyer has split the original piano part between two accordions, played here by Heidi and Uwe Steger. Their instruments are astonishingly close to the human voice, breathing, shouting, whispering, and singing. Tobias Berndt, an accomplished lied singer, takes on the baritone solo part in this recording with the choir of one of the most renowned concert halls.

A journey into the Romantic self: It is clear from its genesis that Schubert did not have any strict dramatic action in mind in this song cycle. Unlike Die schöne Müllerin, Winterreise tells no story; it is a journey into the interior, into ever-deeper realms of loneliness.

A journey into the Romantic self: It is clear from its genesis that Schubert did not have any strict dramatic action in mind in this song cycle. Unlike Die schöne Müllerin, Winterreise tells no story; it is a journey into the interior, into ever-deeper realms of loneliness. As Peter Gülke has put it: ‘The only progress the wanderer makes is a progress in perception, the agonising discharge of his memories, constantly threatened by regressions. . . . Continually in search of confirmations of his condition, he observes with an all too alert, painfully keen sensibility, and like an egocentric melancholic refers everything to himself or selects objects so that they can serve as mirror images and corroborations.’

This „Winterreise“ is the long-awaited conclusion to Matthias Goerne’s Schubert Edition, which began in 2008, for harmonia mundi. Here everything is tenser, more urgent, more harrowing. This winter landscape expects no spring to come; nor will the Hurdy-Gurdy Man give any answer. In the intimate atmosphere offered by this recording, still more than in concert, the path to oblivion finds its echo in our innermost selves.