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Franz Schubert\u2019s 1827 song cycle Winterreise<\/em> is one of classical music’s greatest song collections, a deeply moving exploration of despair, longing, and existential reflection. One of a number of extraordinary works composed near the end of Schubert’s short life (the last three piano sonatas and the great String Quintet are other examples), Winterreise<\/em> reveals Schubert’s mastery at combining poetry and music to create an intense, emotional narrative.<\/p> Schubert<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s first great song-cycle, Die sch\u00f6ne M\u00fcllerin<\/em> was composed in 1823, when he was just 26. It tells of a young miller who falls in love, is first accepted and then rejected; he seeks and finds death.<\/p> Four years later Schubert, now near to death himself from syphilis, set 12 poems by the same author, Wilhelm M\u00fcller, and played them to his friends, describing them as \u2018a group of terrifying songs which I like more than anything I have done\u2019, though he broke down and wept after he had played them. The friends were somewhat alarmed.<\/p> The next year Schubert added a further 12 songs to the collection, taking the cycle to its grim conclusion: not death this time, but joining a hopeless hurdy-gurdy man and trudging through the snow with him, numbed.<\/p> The Winterreise<\/em> cycle, one of the supreme miracles of art song<\/a><\/strong>, is not so much about rejected love as about loneliness and confrontation with the self, stripped of all illusions. Written for tenor, it can nevertheless be sung successfully by a voice in any range.<\/p> Naxos 8.554471<\/strong><\/p> Winterreise<\/em> tends to bring out the best in its interpreters, and to a considerable degree your preferences will depend on whose voice you prefer.<\/p> What’s the story behind Schubert’s Winterreise song cycle?<\/h2>
Winterreise: the best recording<\/h2>
Roman Trekel (baritone), Ulrich Eisenlohr (piano<\/strong>)<\/h3>