Schubert: Winterreise D911

World-famous tenor Christoph Prégardien continues his series of recordings for Challenge Classics of Schubert song-cycles, with what many consider to be the composer’s greatest work in the genre “Winterreise”. As with the previous critically acclaimed release of “Die Schone Mullerin” the pianist on this hybrid SACD is Michael Gees.

Christoph Prégardien has made almost 200 recordings for all the major labels, amongst which are several for Challenge Classics. These include recordings released in 2008 of Schubert’s “Die Schone Mullerin” with Michael Gees, (CC72292), which was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice, and the same composer’s “Schwanengesang” with Andreas Staier (CC72302). Prégardien and Gees also released the award winning ‘Between Life and Death’ in 2009, which featured songs and arias by composers including Mahler, Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, Brahms, and Mozart.

This recording of Winterreise is also available on DVD and Blu-ray, featuring a studio performance of the cycle, and a documentary with artist interviews and behind-the-scenes footage of the studio recording process.

Kurt Moll, who will celebrate his 75th birthday this coming spring, was not merely a celebrated opera singer who performed on the world’s most famous stages. The sophistication and precise diction that characterized his greatest roles – such as Gurnemanz in Wagner’s Parsifal, Baron Ochs in Strauss’s Rosenkavalier or Sarastro in Mozart’s Magic Flute – always reminded one that he was a singer who, besides opera, also paid equal attention to the lied, to which he devoted the same perfectionism. As was traditional for a bass with a full-bodied, supple timbre and a deep register, he enjoyed particular triumphs on the concert podium with ballads ranging from Haydn via Loewe to Shostakovich. In the genre of the lied he also achieved success with a repertoire that has usually been dominated by higher voices. If we want to know how Moll managed to become an exception to the rule, we can easily find out by listening to his recording of Schubert’s Winterreise from 1982. It is now available once more on the ORFEO label, and on a single CD for the first-ever time (its length had made this technically impossible in earlier editions). Together with his regular accompanist Cord Garben, Kurt Moll here offers what the international press of the day hailed as an exemplary recording of perhaps the most famous song cycle of all. This recording was thus awarded the Diapason d’or in France, where Moll’s Winterreise was held in similar regard to the legendary performances of Hans Hotter. He was especially praised for his unmannered, introverted interpretation. His thoroughly cantabile style was without any declamatory harshness, yet remains completely clear in its articulation. Kurt Moll’s Winterreise thus remains captivating to the present day and is one of the most important acoustic documents of this singer’s art. With the ideal balance that he achieved between words and music he became not just one of the most significant singers of recent decades, but also one of the singing teachers most in demand.

British mezzo-soprano Alice Coote is acclaimed around the world for her commanding performances in opera, concert and recital, in repertoire spanning from the Baroque to contemporary music. A regular favourite at Wigmore Hall, she returned with Julius Drake in February 2012 to record Schubert’s 'Winterreise'. Traditionally performed by a male singer, this song cycle is celebrated internationally at the pinnacle of the German Lieder tradition. Offering fresh insight, and a unique perspective on the poetry, Coote unravelled this story with raw vulnerability as her heartfelt portrayal of emotional turmoil and destruction proved spectacularly engaging. With pianist Julius Drake expertly setting the tone from the outset, Coote took a kaleidoscope look at love, as she wholeheartedly plunged herself in the devastating story. At times emotionally overwhelming, her subtlety of expression unreservedly expressed a harrowing sense of rejection and loneliness.

Truly taking the listener on a journey through the 24 poems, this landmark recording promises to be a must-have for any lover of song.

Fischer-Dieskau’s affinity with Schubert is well known and the baritone is featured here in one of the composer’s most famous song cycles.

Following on from Regis’s resurrection of his early account of Die Schone Mullerin which received a Gramophone Editor’s Choice Award, the interpretation captured here is similarly the first he committed to disc (1955) displaying a beautifully youthful and radiant tone. He is accompanied by the incomparable Gerald Moore. Super budget price.

Matthew Rose, star of Covent Garden, Glyndebourne, the MET and La Scala sings Schubert’s masterpiece Winterreise.

Debut recital disc from the leading operatic bass of his generation.

Accompanied by rising-star pianist Gary Matthewman.

Full texts in German and English.

Articles by Susan Youens and Warwick Thompson in English and German.

Disc includes transposable sheet music as computer files.

Beautifully presented CD-sized hardback booklet.

Amidst the ranks of the many male interpreters of Schubert's great song cycle, Brigitte Fassbaender set her own standard. Her recording shows the winter wanderings of the poetic protagonist as a drama with a wide variety of expressive nuance, from rebellion to resignation.

Florian Boesch’s debut disc on ONYX was the highly acclaimed Schumann Heine Lieder (ONYX4041), and he again teams up with Malcolm Martineau for the journey through the bleak and wintry landscape of Schubert’s Winterreise.

Composed in 1827, work on the settings of Wilhem Muller made Schubert agitated and disturbed according to friends. Indeed the songs shocked his friends when first heard – so powerful is the emotional content of the music that it still has the ability to shock and move the listener. The journey starts with ‘Goodnight’, as our traveller walks away from us into the moonlit snowy landscape. At the end of the cycle ‘The Signpost’ he takes the path to his death.

“….Maltman’s ardent, impulsive, intensely “lived” performance, partnered and inspired by the everilluminating Johnson, should be heard by anyone who loves the cycle.”

So wrote Richard Wigmore in Gramophone Magazine of Christopher Maltman’s Die Schöne Müllerin. Released in April 2011, this was the first release of his complete Schubert song cycles project and was awarded an Editor’s Choice.

Recorded over a series of live dates, Maltman has collaborated with one of the world’s foremost authorities on the lieder repertoire, accompanist Graham Johnson. Maltman’s teaming with Johnson is a triumphant partnership with Maltman giving the accolade that he is the “definitive accompanist who leaves no stone unturned”.

Die Winterreise will be followed by Schwanengesang in 2012, the live performance of which was critically-applauded.

Maltman’s decision to undertake these substantial recordings as a live project was a considered choice: “the live recording experience is where the real beauty lies; the little points, the little imperfections, the emotional stress, give the performance an organic feel, a rawness. It dials everything back to the most important element – the live performance.”