Winterreise

Of all the classical song cycles, Schubert's 'Winterreise' is perhaps the most beloved.

SCHUBERT was working on the melodies for Winter Journey from February to October 1827. The musician was coming out of a short period that was not very conducive to creation. He lacked the literary material to stimulate his writing. The discovery of MÜLLER's first twelve poems enthralled him. He discovered the end of the cycle a few months later, thus completing the journey.

Peter Mattei has won great acclaim as a singer with unusual dramatic gifts, appearing on the world’s leading stages in complex operatic roles such as Don Giovanni, Billy Budd and Eugene Onegin. On the present release he takes on a no less complex character in the Lieder canon: the traveller in Schubert’s Winterreise. In this cycle, Schubert returned to the poet Wilhelm Müller, whose poems he had set some years earlier, in his other great song cycle, Die schöne Müllerin. Müller’s texts revolve around a young man who after being rejected leaves his village and heads into the desolate, snowy countryside.

“Schubert’s Winterreise was present for both of us very early in our lives. Daniel keeps telling me how he sat at the piano with his grandfather and played “Der Leiermann”. We were fascinated by this work, which seemed to know so much about what we felt and whose story was somehow our story.

Pavol Breslik writes of his new release: “From the very beginning, I had enormous respect for Die Winterreise, because it demands everything from the narrator. Whenever I open a page where I have set the notes aside and look at it again, I have new questions. And sometimes I don’t find an answer to everything. This ‘process’ never stops.” With his 3rd Lieder Album for Orfeo, Pavol Breslik sets foot on the 'Olympus' of German Lied Gesang with Schubert's Winterreise. His internationally acclaimed recording of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin (C737151) foreshadows that he has something to tell us also about this genius and mystical masterwork. “We artists are always strongly influenced by the work we are just doing. We put our entire soul into it and do our very utmost to present it to the listener. Only whoever has really felt suffering, can sing about suffering. Here, it is a question of authenticity.”

A singer, a pianist and 24 poems by Wilhelm Müller, set to music by Franz Schubert - Winterreise creates a combination of musical extraordinaryness and emotional roller coaster in a minimalistic way. Baritone Martin Achrainer interprets the famous cycle in a staged adaptation by Hermann Schneider. Franz Schubert as a misunderstood, happy and unsuccessful, financially always vicious loner is a fan of the romance. Winterreise therefore a too premature masterpiece of a young deceased, which opened in the lifetime of his creator only initiated, far-sighted ghosts in all his strength. These readings are common, almost ritualized and internalized. They are true and they are not. Of course, Franz Schubert is one of the early representatives of Romanticism, just as Winterreise has become the almost sacrosanct colossus of the genus Lied.

A 13-time Grammy nominee, one of the world’s leading tenors and an unparalleled recitalist, Ian Bostridge stands at the peak of his powers. Bostridge is also the author of Schubert’s Winter Journey, Anatomy of an Obsession, an insightful and gracefully written work on Winterreise that positions Bostridge as a leading authority on the work. Pianist Thomas Adès is renowned for his brilliant compositions as much as his stellar performances. The New York Times called Adès, “the most complete musician of his generation.” The pairing of these two remarkable musical partners has drawn raves across the world.

A 13-time Grammy nominee, one of the world’s leading tenors and an unparalleled recitalist, Ian Bostridge stands at the peak of his powers. Bostridge is also the author of Schubert’s Winter Journey, Anatomy of an Obsession, an insightful and gracefully written work on Winterreise that positions Bostridge as a leading authority on the work. Pianist Thomas Adès is renowned for his brilliant compositions as much as his stellar performances. The New York Times called Adès, “the most complete musician of his generation.” The pairing of these two remarkable musical partners has drawn raves across the world.

A fresh theatrical take on Schubert’s final masterpiece - 24 songs based on poems by Wilhelm Müller that recount the tale of a lonely traveller who ventures on a winter journey in the snow to rid himself of his lost love. Philippe Sly’s version is dramatically staged and lit, and includes an on-stage ensemble with all musicians playing from memory. French-Canadian bass-baritone Philippe Sly has gained international acclaim for his “beautiful, blooming tone and magnetic stage presence” (San Francisco Chronicle). Mr. Sly was the first prize winner of the prestigious Concours Musical International de Montréal and a grand prize winner Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions singing the varied repertoire of Mozart, Bach, Handel, Stravinsky, and Wagner. Recently, he was awarded Concert of the Year in Romantic, Post-Romantic, and Impressionist Music at the 16th annual ceremony of the Prix Opus in Québec.