Winterreise - your favourite recording

[Oliver]

Co-incidentally, my Kaufmann arrived in the post yesterday. I too had been heavily influenced by reviews- I'm no expert on Schubert songs and so did a fair bit of preparation which is unusual for me. I enjoyed Bostridge's performance; perhaps I should have trusted my own judgement. I too found Kaufmann heavy but his sensitivity to the poetry compensated. I found Deutsch's accompaniment sympathetic.
I was interested to note that singer and pianist disagree about the mood of the final song. I read this after I'd played through the recording and was not aware of anything other than a superb musical partnership. But as I say, this genre is out of my comfort-zone; what do others think?

One final comment. I've always assumed that the The Leiermann is a vision of what lies in store for the traveller....it is what he becomes. Deutsch's reading is much positive; he sees him as a friend who will continue the journey with him. Wrong-headed, in my view.

[Richard Tarleton]

I'm (even more) confused now because I was going to go for that one (admittedly merely on the strength that it was the latest recording and 'in the charts').

Never a good idea - that sort of thinking would lead you to buy Netrebko's Four Last Songs. Perhaps you already have ? Clemmie probably loves it . Well she's probably contractually obliged to

[Radio64]

Never a good idea - that sort of thinking would lead you to buy Netrebko's Four Last Songs. Perhaps you already have ? Clemmie probably loves it . Well she's probably contractually obliged to

Blissfully unaware of this Netrebko chappie and his quartet-combo. Not much cop then?

[Richard Tarleton]

Blissfully unaware of this Netrebko chappie and his quartet-combo. Not much cop then?

May be OK. But plenty of others to choose from.

[Radio64]

May be OK. But plenty of others to choose from.

Oh! A quick google pic search made this Netrebko suddenly seem a lot more appealing.

Netrebko-reise.

[CallMePaul]

[QUOTE=Caliban;459759][COLOR="#0000FF"]The Christine Schäfer performance got an outing at home yesterday and remains a - or even, the - favourite for me.

It was also the winner on BaL a few years ago. It's one of my favourites too, but there are so many great recordings to choose from! I've not heard Jonas Kaufmann yet and he's had rave reviews, but I remember his Wigmore Hall Die Schoene |Muellerin on R3 as a bit too operatic for my taste. However, it is worth pointing out that Michael Vogl, who performed songs from the 2 cycles with Schubert at the piano, was a distinguished opera singer and took liberties with the songs that few would consider appropriate today.

PS How do I get umlauts without a German keyboard?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

PS How do I get umlauts without a German keyboard?

Make sure your number lock is on, and use the numerical key pad on the right side of the keyboard.

For all letters, hold down the "Alt" key, then type in the numbers:

ä = Alt+132; ë = Alt+137; ï = Alt=139; ö = Alt+148; ü = Alt+129

capitals

Ä = Alt+142; Ö = Alt+153; Ü = Alt+154


Further symbols here:

http://www.alt-codes.net/

[Petrushka]

Make sure your number lock is on, and use the numerical key pad on the right side of the keyboard.

For all letters, hold down the "Alt" key, then type in the numbers:

ä = Alt+132; ë = Alt+137; ï = Alt=139; ö = Alt+148; ü = Alt+129

capitals

Ä = Alt+142; Ö = Alt+153; Ü = Alt+154


Further symbols here:
http://www.alt-codes.net/

I remember you pointing me in the direction of that once before, for which thanks. However, I couldn't find the Polish L with a right/left slash useful when typing the second L in Lutoslawski.

Back on topic: Winterreise lovers might like to catch this live recording from DF-D and Brendel given in 1984 in Amsterdam: http://www.radio4.nl/luister-concert...ischer-dieskau

[Richard Tarleton]

Or here

For tricky ones like Leoš Janáček, though, quicker just to cut and paste from Wiki

[Radio64]

...

Back on topic: Winterreise lovers might like to catch this live recording from DF-D and Brendel given in 1984 in Amsterdam: http://www.radio4.nl/luister-concert...ischer-dieskau

Dank U wel!...and more Winterreiserage from our Dutch cousins here...

[antongould]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTi2pQiUphI

According to WIKI () Plunket Greene only recorded The Hurdy-Gurdy Man - that remarkable sound!

Just been on Breakfast .....remarkable sound indeed....

[Radio64]

Just been on Breakfast .....remarkable sound indeed....

Heard that too ..pretty amazing.

..and more Winterreise here from last year .. (no. 10 on the list)

[Stanley Stewart]

Fully protected, like Horatio, "Arm'd at all points exactly, cap-a-pe", I now feel sufficiently emboldened to proffer the Jon Vickers/Geoffrey Parsons 1984, Pathe-Marconi (EMI) two Digital LP recording of Le Voyage D'Hiver among my favourites. Rugged, intense and sublime, it also reminds me of his Tristan at Covent Garden in the 70s, raw and deeply personal emotion.

The standard LP boxset is also full of small pleasures; a clearly printed typesetting, a full sized portrait of the composer on the booklet and the outside cover of the boxset, a repro of Caspar David Friedrich's: Paysage d'hiver avec une cathedrale, Dortmund. Museum fur Kunst und Kulturgeschine - the wintry landscape the essence of the work.

Jon Vickers also contributes his notes: 'My Reading Of Winterreise':

"The Winterrreise can be interpreted in many ways. Interpretations are as diverse and varied as the people who embark upon the exercise. They run the whole gamut from <a search for love> through < an aching longing to be understood,> to <an allegorical study of the psychology of death>, because Winterrreise contains elements of each. Arguments abound, and the followers of this or that interpretation sometimes show as much intensity in their admiration as the intensity necessary to a performance of this work. Like a great piece of sculpture, the viewing from many angles reveals new and different aspects of beauty. Taken all together, they constitute a whole.
Of all the songs which compromise the Winterreise, number twenty-three

(NB, Die Nebensonnen, the piano part deepens into a symbol, a ray of light in the surrounding gloom
)
has probably been most analysed. What the three suns are remains a mystery, for there is nowhere in Schubert's or Muller's works any clue. They could be people or concepts capable of being replaced or changed, but constituting an influence at once loved and painful, and from which, of profound necessity, the release comes only with death.

This vague ambiguity is an essential and powerfully subtle element running through the whole fibre of Schubert's (and Muller's) Winterreise. Essential because the ambiguity become the vehicle by which the Winterreise is universalised, allowing all or any a nostalgic winter's journey of their own, as this evocative, gentle marriage of music and poetry illuminates anew the beauties and sadnesses of one's own life experience.

And so, of course, there is no definitive interpretation. There have been so many artists who have performed Winterreise, and many, like me, who have recorded it. But for myself, as I am sure or all my colleagues, Winterreise remains at once an impossible challenge, and a great privilege to be allowed to handle it.

Please, those of you who are not fully acquainted with this work, follow the words, for by this participation, you may experience your own Winter's Journey."

[Karafan]

Only slightly OT, but I stumbled on this during the week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6De3QqkXk8

It's wonderful to hear the great Gerald Moore talk about the unsung art of the accompanist; the LP has, of course, been deleted for many years. Enjoy!

Karafan

[Stanley Stewart]

Only slightly OT, but I stumbled on this during the week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6De3QqkXk8

It's wonderful to hear the great Gerald Moore talk about the unsung art of the accompanist; the LP has, of course, been deleted for many years. Enjoy!

Karafan

A timely reminder that it is time to revisit my Penguin edition - 6 bob in 1962 - of Gerald Moore's "Am I Too Loud?"; the memoirs of a piano accompanist. Riches, indeed! Heard him many times in recital but last saw him in the audience at a Janet Baker recital in the 70s when the New Gallery, Regent Street, became a concert venue for several years. Warm in his praise, sharp in his observations, he depicts a world of constant re-rehearsal.