Ihre Favourite Winterreise

Leo K. · July 12, 2024, 06:15:54 AM

I am currently enjoying this recording with Benjamin Brun and Karola Theill on Hanssler (2021). I can't find much online about it, but I like the piano sound and voice. It's not the intimate and close sound like Hotter with Gerald Moore, but it moves along well, perhaps I like this more declamatory style than I realized.

Mandryka · November 17, 2024, 08:11:25 AM

Matthias Horn/Christoph Ullrich.

At first I thought this was just yet another excellent interpretation. Then I heard what they make of Die Nebensonnen and decided to make a post, because it's amazing! Der Leiermann isn't chopped liver either.

Kalevala · November 17, 2024, 09:20:22 AM

Quote from: Mandryka on November 17, 2024, 08:11:25 AM

Matthias Horn/Christoph Ullrich.

At first I thought this was just yet another excellent interpretation. Then I heard what they make of Die Nebensonnen and decided to make a post, because it's amazing! Der Leiermann isn't chopped liver either.

Glad that you are still enjoying your traversal!

K

Mandryka · May 04, 2025, 01:12:47 AM

Henk Neven and Hans Eijsackers. This is a studio recording made for BBC Music Magazine, there are later concert performances online by the looks of things.

My ears first pricked up in Auf dem flusse (7) - such colour in the voice! From then on it's impossible to stop listening. Eisjackers is incisive too.

Mandryka · May 04, 2025, 11:55:46 PM

Quote from: Mandryka on May 04, 2025, 01:12:47 AM

Henk Neven and Hans Eijsackers. This is a studio recording made for BBC Music Magazine, there are later concert performances online by the looks of things.

My ears first pricked up in Auf dem flusse (7) - such colour in the voice! From then on it's impossible to stop listening. Eisjackers is incisive too.

More on this. It is really candid - a glimpse into the mind of a man who's hopelessly stuck, who doesn't know what to do. Painful to hear in a way. Hotter tried to do this, but Neven is more text aware, more varying. An essential Winterreise performance IMO.

Mandryka · June 04, 2025, 01:34:51 AM

Quote from: Mandryka on May 31, 2025, 10:52:36 AM

Bass baritone sounds interesting.

https://static.qobuz.com/goodies/33/000209833.pdf

Jakob Bloch Jesperen is a declamatory singer with a career in baroque music, he seems to have worked a lot with Lars Ulrich Mortensen. The voice is low, but so rich in inflections and colours that it would be wrong to call it dark, I've not found any other details about Sharon Prushamsky. She's playing a very authentic copy of a Viennese piano from Schubert's time, lots of pedals to change timbres - very nice. She uses them tastefully - it's dramatic but not melodramatic.

This interpretation is wide awake and often text sensitive.

OK sound, nice booklet too.

Mandryka · September 16, 2025, 01:14:56 PM

Quote from: Mandryka on April 29, 2024, 12:54:12 AM

Nimsgern is a low baritone. He was an opera singer, Wotan in Janowski's Ring and Amfortas for Horenstein, though I think he'd retired when he made this Winterreise. Dramatic to the point where the word is insufficient - electric, a sort of nightmarish delirium. Müller meets Artaud! Very enjoyable for me.

Back to Nimsgern's Winterreise and I'm hearing exactly what I heard last year - astonishing really. You've got to be in the mood for this sort of presentation- it doesn't seduce.

Mandryka · October 15, 2025, 07:38:35 AM

Quote from: Mandryka on October 04, 2025, 07:30:36 AM

Interesting because she seems to have a nice voice, from one or two samples.

Quote from: Mandryka on October 11, 2025, 09:36:31 AMWell, no. Me no like. Consigned to oblivion.

Quote from: Florestan on October 11, 2025, 09:46:04 AMMandryka è mobile
Qual piuma al vento
Muta d'accento
E di pensiero...

In fact the Winterreise singer she reminds me most of is one of your favourites - Jon Vickers. Not in register obviously, but in intensity and drama. It's a quirky contribution, like Vickers/Schaaf - and hence valuable in a way. Here's the booklet

https://static.qobuz.com/goodies/25/000214952.pdf

It sounds weird to me, presumably because of the transposition for her voice. Out of tune. But let's not let a little thing like that get in the way.

Florestan · October 15, 2025, 07:53:31 AM

Quote from: Mandryka on October 15, 2025, 07:38:35 AMIn fact the Winterreise singer she reminds me most of is one of your favourites - Jon Vickers. Not in register obviously, but in intensity and drama. It's a quirky contribution, like Vickers/Schaaf - and hence valuable in a way. Here's the booklet

https://static.qobuz.com/goodies/25/000214952.pdf

It sounds weird to me, presumably because of the transposition for her voice. Out of tune. But let's not let a little thing like that get in the way.

The weirdest thing is that they need two CDs for it.

Mandryka · October 15, 2025, 08:12:08 AM

Quote from: Florestan on October 15, 2025, 07:53:31 AMThe weirdest thing is that they need two CDs for it.

I didn't know that - you can't tell on streaming.

Florestan · October 15, 2025, 08:32:10 AM

Quote from: Mandryka on October 15, 2025, 08:12:08 AMI didn't know that - you can't tell on streaming.

It's on the first page of the booklet.

André · October 15, 2025, 09:31:02 AM

Another favourite. Beautiful voice, intelligent word-pointing and excellent accompaniment.

A plangent tenor voice is my preference for this cycle. Over the long run (it's 60+ minutes long) I find it sustains the interest more and tires the ear less than low voices.

The combination of the dark, dour texts and a low voice can be quite wearying. The older I get, the less doom and gloom I can put up with.