Winterreise

[Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich]

Oh people, just let you know, I'm a lucky man. For the first time I listened to Schuberts Winterreise, this work goes so well with me, the Autumn, melancholy ... I often feel like an einsamer Wanderer, I like walking through lonesome nature ... I'm a lucky man.  - Fischer-Dieskau on DG -

[mn dave]

Oh people, just let you know, I'm a lucky man. For the first time I listened to Schuberts Winterreise, this work goes so well with me, the Autumn, melancholy ... I often feel like an einsamer Wanderer, I like walking through lonesome nature ... I'm a lucky man.  - Fischer-Dieskau on DG -

Yep. You are the lucky one. I remember the first time I heard it.

[Keemun]

Oh people, just let you know, I'm a lucky man. For the first time I listened to Schuberts Winterreise, this work goes so well with me, the Autumn, melancholy ... I often feel like an einsamer Wanderer, I like walking through lonesome nature ... I'm a lucky man.  - Fischer-Dieskau on DG -

I just checked out that CD from the library and loaded it on my iPod.  I haven't listened to it yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

[rappy]

You will feel even luckier if you now get the Pregardien recording 

[Brünnhilde forever]

Excellent recommendations but be adventurous and get the DVD of a stunning film with Ian Bostridge. He does have, what I believe, is a perfect Schubertian voice.

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=168978&album_group=2

[mozartsneighbor]

Discovering the Winterreise was an incredible journey for me.
As another poster pointed out already above the Pregardien/Staier version is very interesting. Also, I like Gerhaher out of the recent crop of baritones.
Enjoy!

[knight66]

Excellent recommendations but be adventurous and get the DVD of a stunning film with Ian Bostridge. He does have, what I believe, is a perfect Schubertian voice.

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=168978&album_group=2

Now here Hilde, we part company. I am as allergic to Bostridge as I am to Peter Pears. He certainly highlights verbal acuity, but he is inclined to break up the musical lines into sub phrases and he squeezes the tone like toothpaste. The actual sound of the voice is usually, though not always, dry. I think this recording was made a few years ago, since which his mannerisms have become even more pronounced.

Although Schubert did write the cycle for the tenor voice, he sanctioned the Baratone transpositions. I prefer the lower voice, Hotter and Dieskau are amongst my favourites.

For a different take on the piece, I recommend the chamber arrangement made by Hans Zender. The tenor there is Hans Peter Blochwitz. This is not an interpretation from which to learn the cycle, but it does reinvent it using modern sonorities. Zender is wonderful at conveying weather and the sounds of nature. He highlights these and it sends you back to the piano version to hear how Schubert initially conveyed all these sounds. It is not a straight forward transcription, some songs have extended introductions or interludes. It comes out at almost 90 minutes. A different journey.

Mike

[PerfectWagnerite]

I like the first song, the rest I can't ever get excited about. I have the DFD/Demus recording on DG.

[Brünnhilde forever]

Although Schubert did write the cycle for the tenor voice, he sanctioned the Baratone transpositions. I prefer the lower voice, Hotter and Dieskau are amongst my favourites.

Mike

Parting is such sweet sorrow... but we part only on this one issue, nothing permanent about it, I hope. 

A surprisingly good Winterreise is the one I have with Martti Talvela, on a BIS recording, even a notch deeper than the other baritone performances.

[knight66]

I would think that Talvela's voice would be striking. I also have Robert Holl, who I feel is not really inside the piece, it does not grab you.

That cannot be said of Brigitte Fassbaender's version which is a triumph, full-on and involving.

Mike

[greg]

It's been awhile for me. Hey, this is a good remember, though, I might have to listen to this:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510VRWK2BSL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

tomorrow

isee this:
http://www.amazon.com/Schubert-Die-Winterreise-Fischer-Dieskau/dp/B000001GQE/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1223252194&sr=8-1
is the highest-rated version, though.....

[Brünnhilde forever]

That cannot be said of Brigitte Fassbaender's version which is a triumph, full-on and involving.

Mike

Now we are back together again because I much prefer Fassbaender over the schmalzige Fischer-Dieskau.

Fassbaender is such a consummate musical genius that even Sergiu Celibidache deigned to perform with her his one and only Gustav Mahler work: Kindertotenlieder.

[knight66]

Fassbaender's recordings do not seem to me to get enough attention. Her pianist in the Schubert is the composer Aribert Reiman. The two work closely in terms of the colours being used and the atmosphere created. Schubert ensured in these songs that the pianist had the same importance as the singer. The piano part is always important, but here is vital.

They also colluded in a version of Schwanengesang. They reorder the songs to achieve a stronger thread of narrative. Fassbaender takes us on an alarming journey to the point of derangement; strong meat and probably one of the greatest lieder discs ever laid down.

In neither set of songs does it matter in the least that a number of the songs are considered the property of the male voice.

Lis, in what way is Fischer Dieskau sentimentalise Winterreise? He recorded it a number of times and certainly, his later discs show the voice with markedly less glamor, I would have thought he could more be accused of hectoring in those.

Mike

[Tapio Dimitriyevich Shostakovich]

Now we are back together again because I much prefer Fassbaender over the schmalzige Fischer-Dieskau.

I like Schmalz

[Brünnhilde forever]

The Fischer-Dieskau recording I have is from 1984 and the pianist is Philippe Bianconi.

Probably should not be comparing, but after hearing Prégardien, Talvela, Bostridge and Fassbaender, Fischer-Dieskau sounds a tad too sentimental here and there.

Has Keenlyside ever done it?

[Wendell_E]

Has Keenlyside ever done it?

He's sung and danced it!  At the same time.

http://www.simonkeenlyside.info/Articles/Perform/Recital/20041019+WinterreiseMelbo.html

No recordings, AFAIK.

[Brünnhilde forever]

I have his other Trisha Brown ballet/concert disc, the Monteverdi L'Orfeo and when I watch it, I don't watch it, I only listen to him sing. Somehow his marionette-like movements don't do a thing for me! 

[knight66]

Lis, I cannot imagine he is in fact dancing in the Schubert. Although I have not seen it, I imagine he is like Orpheus walking through the set while the furies dance round him.

Mike

[The new erato]

the Monteverdi L'Orfeo and when I watch it, I don't watch it, I only listen to him sing.

I love that perfomance. Its spellbinding rhytm and intricate cheoreography creates a unique suggestive performance. Pure magic. And few recorded Orfeos can match his singing.

[Brünnhilde forever]

And few recorded Orfeos can match his singing.

That is exactly the reason why I don't watch it, just listen to it!