Ihre Favourite Winterreise

[jlopes]

These are my top choices:





Other favorites:
Hotter/Moore
Goerne/Brendel
Gerhaher/Huber
Prey/Sawallisch

[Rinaldo]

Winterreise is my favorite work of music. I think I have more than thirty recordings.

Wow! Thanks for sharing your faves. Can't wait to start exploring (and collecting), my wallet is having an emotional breakdown already.

[MusicTurner]

Probably already mentioned here by others before, but I didn't know until now, that there's an orchestrated version by Hans Zender. It's on youtube as a live performance, and there's a CD recording from 2018.

[amw]

There are multiple CD recordings yes. I think I have two of them.

[Mandryka]

Probably already mentioned here by others before, but I didn't know until now, that there's an orchestrated version by Hans Zender. It's on youtube as a live performance, and there's a CD recording from 2018.

I thought it was a bit uninteresting, but let me know if you think I'm wrong. It just seemed to be a pointless orchestration!

[amw]

It is a genuine attempt to reimagine the music for orchestra. Whether it's an interesting one is obviously subjective.

[MusicTurner]

Well, Zender does tend to be an artist of the serious/sincere sort throughout, I think.

[ritter]

It is a genuine attempt to reimagine the music for orchestra. Whether it's an interesting one is obviously subjective.

+1. Zender's piece is much more than an orchestration, as it expands and alters the music (mainly in the supporting instrumental lines, but not only there), sometimes significantly. I find it fascinating and, yes, very interesting.

Here the opening Gute Nacht, performed by the son (Julian Prégardien)...

https://www.youtube.com/v/BziaRrooffI

...and the concluding Der Laiermann, sung by the father (Christoph Prégardien)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1WiIvf6Bec

[Jo498]

I thought it was a bit uninteresting, but let me know if you think I'm wrong. It just seemed to be a pointless orchestration!

I don't know the Zender orchestration (might have heard bits of it years ago) but would you call any orchestration of a chamber/piano/... piece by a different composer years/centuries later not pointless or which one's (maybe Webern with the Ricercare à 6 or some others) would have a (valid) point?

[MusicTurner]

It's probably a commentary-like and innovative orchestration, as described by Ritter, not an attempt at naively 'improving' the original.

(( One could say the same of Mussorgsky/Ravel. But the composer's thoughts have of course been forced also to diminish a bit under such circumstances.
Holten's orchestration of Nielsen's Commotio for organ would be one case of adding new, interesting dimensions to a piece that in itself is rather symphonic; it's been described as a blessing in the form of a new Nielsen symphony in disguise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB5TXkNzUh8
A case of the re-working composer interfering with a lot more of creative work, would be for instance Lukas Foss' Phorion, a collage based on quotations from a single Bach piece.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjad33Iah-s ))

BTW I have an old LP with Winterreise in Liszt's version for solo piano, but it's played in a very boring way, pedestrian in the wrong sense, by a Mr. Risaliti; there are probably only be better versions out there.

[Mandryka]

I don't know the Zender orchestration (might have heard bits of it years ago) but would you call any orchestration of a chamber/piano/... piece by a different composer years/centuries later not pointless or which one's (maybe Webern with the Ricercare à 6 or some others) would have a (valid) point?

Boulez and Notations is my paradigm for this sort of thing. I'll listen again to the Zender, I enjoyed the Schumann orchestration with Uri Caine I remember.

[DaveF]

Star performer's name in huge letters... composer/work name in middle-sized letters... pianist's name (playing the piano is a lot more difficult than singing, it really is) in tiny letters... hmm...  I heard a story once told by one of the great and good of music criticism (I forget who, could have been Lionel Salter, Stephen Plaistow) about an interview with DFD:

Interviewer: Mr F-D, you have been the pre-eminent interpreter of German Lieder for the past thirty years...
DFD: (shakes head) Ach, nein, nein...
(Interviewer: (thinks) He's going to say, 'No that's Hermann Prey, surely'.)
DFD: ... nein, nein.  Thirty-five years.

[Mandryka]

Like this

[milk]

[Rinaldo]

*sees fortepiano*

*runs to check this record out*

[milk]

*sees fortepiano*

*runs to check this record out*

I don't know much about singing at all. Can someone recommend other baritones who sing lieder like Van Egmond? How would you describe his style? I like how resonant and unforced he sounds. But I'm not sure he'd be described as very passionate.
Yes, I bought this back when I was pursuing Crawford's chamber work with Atlantis - basically because of the HIP aspect of it.

[Mandryka]

Discounting arrangements, I have:

Christian Gerhaher & Gerold Huber (RCA)
Christine Schäfer & Eric Schneider (Onyx)
Daniel Behle & Oliver Schnyder (RCA)
Florian Boesch & Malcolm Martineau (Onyx)
Hans-Jörg Mammel & Arthur Schoonderwoerd (Alpha)
James Gilchrist & Anna Tillbrook (Orchid Classics)
Jan Kobow & Christoph Hammer (ATMA)
Peter Schreier & András Schiff (Decca)
Werner Güra & Christoph Berner (harmonia mundi)

I like most of them, for various reasons, but consider Schäfer, Kobow and Güra my favourites in roughly that order.

I've been listening to Kobow/Hammer today - I think it is excellent. I had heard his recording of Schoene Muellerin before, made a mental note that he is good, and then promptly forgot about him for about 10 years, until today!

[Todd]

A very restrained, ascetic almost, but extremely effective approach—with the greatest attention to the words— is that of Christine Schäfer with Eric Schneider:

A fantastic version, and along with DFD/Moore (DG) and Schreier/Schiff, one of my favorites.

[Mandryka]

The rapid alternation between depressive, manic and tender moods makes this almost bipolar tripolar. 

Even Vickers' slight English accent, far from being annoying, contributes to the feeling of alienation and displacement.

In a league of its own, this Winterreise.

I'm Vickers's biggest fan in opera, and at various times I've enjoyed his two Winterreise recordings for the feeling of enormous power being just about held in check.  My memory of the way he sings the line ohne Ruh' und suche Ruh' sends a shiver down my spine.

However a couple of years ago I had a really special experience listening to Hotter/Moore, and it became clear to me what I really want from this music. I want performances which are confidential, like someone speaking to themselves rather than someone doing a public oration. A soliloquy .

In the past I've listened a lot to Schreier/Richter, but the last time I tried I found it so dark, so sad, so desolate and hopeless that I couldn't handle it. But it's clearly a landmark.

[SimonNZ]

Interviewer: Mr F-D, you have been the pre-eminent interpreter of German Lieder for the past thirty years...
DFD: (shakes head) Ach, nein, nein...
(Interviewer: (thinks) He's going to say, 'No that's Hermann Prey, surely'.)
DFD: ... nein, nein.  Thirty-five years.

Ian Bostridge said "you should never meet your heroes" after being introduced to DFD, who went immediately into young-buck-on-my-turf mode.

Nevertheless, another vote here for the DFD with Demus.