Listeners of a certain age (60+)
will, like me, most probably have been introduced to by way of the iconic Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (1925-2012)
Deutsche Grammophon edition released in 1972 (he was accompanied by Gerald
Moore). Fischer-Dieskau recorded the
work, with several pianists in 1955, 1963, 1966, 1972, 1980, 1986 and finally
in 1990. Each edition will have its enthusiasts. I remember being introduced to
this LP by a now highly-respected organist and professor of music. He regarded Winterreise as epitomising the genre: I
have long-agreed with him - but see below for one ‘literary’ reservation.
Winterreise
Arkiv currently list 125
recordings of this masterpiece by various artists, with several ‘duplicates.’
It would take a Schubert Winterreise ‘groupy’
many pages to compare them all. I have lived for 44 years with Fischer-Dieskau:
on LP, cassette, CD and download. It remains my ‘bench-mark.’
Just a few notes about Winterreise which may be of interest to
anyone new to the song-cycle. Much of the work was composed during the spring
of 1827 with the last ten songs written in the autumn of that year. There are
24 songs in total. The text is by the German poet Wilhelm Müller (1794-1827). Johann
Mayrhofer (1787-1836) wrote that ‘Schubert had been ill for a long time, and
had some unhappy experiences: the rosy gleam had disappeared from his life, and
the winter had come to him in earnest. The poet’s despairing tone attracted
him.’ Interestingly, the correction of the proofs of Winterreise was one of the last tasks the composer undertook before
his death during the following year.
The theme of the cycle is that of
a young man who has been jilted in love and choses to wander through a wintery
landscape. The underlying mood of the music is utterly melancholic. For modern
tastes the poet probably overeggs the thoughts of madness and death resulting
from his lack of success in romance. He clearly forgets that there ‘are other
fish in the sea.’ Not all the songs share the mood of desolation. The opening number
is a case in point. This is more an affectionate reminisce on love born in May
and lost as winter approaches. ‘Der Lindenbaum’, which is the most popular number
in the cycle, also catches this slightly more optimistic mood. It is often
recorded as a solo song. ‘Die Post’ is
full of hope, as the singer hears the ‘post horn’ and vainly anticipates a
letter from his beloved. Even the final poem, which presents a Hurdy Gurdy Man,
is not all desolation. There is a strange, ghostly beauty about this song that
suggests that there can be salvation for the singer after all. Music making may assuage his pain.
My only reservation about this great
song-cycle is that the poems can sometimes be a little overblown and overly
sentimental in their conventional depiction of love lost. Sir Compton Mackenzie
once suggested that much of the imagery is more akin to a Victorian Christmas or
Valentine Day card: none, he declared, reach the literary heights of Robert
Burns’ O my Luve's Like a Red, Red Rose’ or ‘Ae fond Kiss’. He (and I, as
Scots, or in Mackenzie’s case a de facto Scot) may be biased!
The liner notes give a brief resume
of Schubert’s career followed by a short introduction to the music. The
biographical details of bass-baritone Johan Reuter and the Copenhagen Quartet
are also given. The text of the poems is presented in German only. I understand
that these songs are well-known, but this may be some listener’s first approach
to these works. It is possible to find various translations on the internet,
but many are copyright.
I have been bowled over by Johan
Reuter’s stunning performance on this present CD. The singing is excellent and
is consistently responsive to the changing moods of the poems. I have always
preferred Winterreise sung by a
baritone and not a tenor. There ought to be ‘something of the night’ about the
singer’s delivery of most of these pessimistic and melancholic songs. Reuter
certainly brings this ‘saturnine’ quality to the work.
I had never heard Winterreise accompanied by a string
quartet before. In understand that there are other editions for this format
available. Despite still preferring a piano accompaniment this present version
is a revelation. There is, as one online reviewer noted about a similar
arrangement, a danger that the song-cycle can become a string quartet
accompanied by a singer. This is not the case with the Copenhagen
Quartet cellist’s splendid reworking of the piano part. The quartet adds a
luminescence and clarity to the music that is (by instrumental definition)
lacking in the piano version. It is a completely viable alternative that I will
turn to on many occasions.
Track Listing:
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Winterreise, op.89, D111 (1827) transcription for string
quartet, Richard Krug.
Johan Reuter (bass-baritone) Copenhagen String Quartet,
Eugene Tichindeleanu (violin), John Bak Dinitzen (violin), Bernd Rinne (viola),
Richard Krug (cello)
DANACORD DACOCD
759
No comments:
Post a Comment