# Winterreise



## Fsandahl

I'm totally in love with Winterreise . Especially the recording with Florian Boesch and Malcolm Martineau.

But what's next? Which pieces do you recommend? And which recordings/singers?

/Filip


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## Art Rock

Try Fischer-Dieskau/Moore also for Die Winterreise. Obvious recommendations:

Schubert - Die schoene Muellerin
Schumann - Dichterliebe

Less obvious: songs by Liszt, and Wolf.


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## Ukko

Art Rock said:


> Try Fischer-Dieskau/Moore also for Die Winterreise. Obvious recommendations:
> 
> Schubert - Die schoene Muellerin
> Schumann - Dichterliebe
> 
> Less obvious: songs by Liszt, and Wolf.


Yep. Die schoene Muellerin has one of those storylines that only an opera nut could love, but the songs are fine.


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## elgar's ghost

If you want to stick with Schubert try also the collection of Goethe settings (D F-D with accompaniment by either Jorg Demus or Gerald Moore on DG). After Schubert Schumann and Wolf are, as mentioned by Art Rock, recommended stepping stones (as are Mahler's songs for piano and voice).


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## norman bates

i would add Peter Warlock's The curlew, it's a masterpiece and it's similar in mood to winterreise. Some call it the Winterreise of the twentieth century and it's not a wrong comparison.


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## SerbenthumInDerMusik

Schumann's Dichterliebe would be the obvious next step in the progression of lieder. Dont' really like the Mullerin.


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## SerbenthumInDerMusik

Did anyone listen to Ensemble Modern recording of this?


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## PetrB

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau recorded them twice, both worth having.

Hans Hotter ~ I love this singer doing these, that desired 'intimate' quality and the other highly desired 'singing that seems more like talking' (Fischer Dieskau famous for that quality, too.) is present in the Hotter performances, to a degree which may startle. His voice drops to a near growl, grumble, bordering on Sprechstimme, but never quite. These sound like someone talking directly to you, as if you are in a small room, or the storyteller sitting by the hearth. He recorded them several times too, with pianist / accompanists Thomas Raucheisen and Gerald Moore.

Hotter was a Bass-Baritone, which brings a different color to these than might be expected.
This is the recording with Gerald Moore (1954)





I recommend the grand-daddy of Orchestral Song Cycles, preceding Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder by several years....
*Hector Berlioz; Les nuits d'été*, texts of Théophile Gautier. Of the romantic period, this well-chosen set of texts still gives a sense of narrative, and leaves a a clear overall impression -- death, longing, all the deliciously lugubrious dark aspects of romanticism (_which somehow make us feel so good when we visit them_) are present.

_Les nuits d'été_ was originally for piano and voice (baritone, contralto, or mezzo-soprano), but when Berlioz set it in an orchestration he then decided upon soprano -- this is the version with which most are familiar. Berlioz, not surprisingly, got tremendous color from a not huge orchestra, and .... oh, yeah, they are also gorgeous....
Another 'vintage' great singer of the past, Régine Crespin, is 'incomparable' in these.
_The link is a playlist: in the U.S.A. anyway, all but the first song are 'not allowed in your country" ~ if you are in another part of the world, maybe it is 'open' to you._





The full cycle is available, too, with Jessye Norman, Sir Colin Davis conducting....





The *Mussorsgky song cycles* are not to be missed!

*Nursery Songs* is another fantastic (and not all sunny song) cycle. 





His *"Songs and Dances of Death,"* about which superlatives fail me. 
Orchestrated, with bass




Piano and voice, Galina Vishnevskaya, soprano; Mstislav Rostropovich, piano.





The *Mahler* song cycles, *Das Knaben Wunderhorn, Kindertotenlieder* (songs on the death of children -- those cheery romantics!) were for voice and piano, later orchestrated. _Das Knaben Wunderhorn_ is most known now with its orchestration, a full orchestra usually in recordings: recently Thomas Hampson recorded them (DGG) with the Wiener Virtuosen in their original chamber orchestration, Mahler's original orchestration.
The Capstone Mahler song cycle is _Das Lied von der Erde_, with a selection of Chinese poems translated into German. My favorite 'archival' recording I would not do without over all others is with Bruno Walter, New York Philharmonic; Mildred Miller, Ernst Haefliger.


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## PetrB

SerbenthumInDerMusik said:


> Did anyone listen to Ensemble Modern recording of this?


That orchestrated version, sans voice? Yeah. Hated it


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## SerbenthumInDerMusik

It's not without voice, Hans Blochwitz is singing the tenor part. Are you talking about a different recording or did you already get bored before he joined in? :lol:

I second the recommendation for Hotter's WR and Mussorgsky's songs!


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## Meaghan

Okay, my favorite song cycles (other than _Winterreise_ on that classic Romantic theme of The Angsty Lover in Nature:

Mahler's _Leider eines fahrenden Gesellen_ ("Songs of a Wayfarer") is, in many ways, an updated Winterreise (late romantic, but also much shorter). Some striking similarities. Mahler utilizes extensively that very Schubertian device of alternating between a minor key and its parallel major (or vice versa) in the repetition of short phrases. And there's even a lindenbaum. It is the first song cycle I ever fell in love with, and now it is my second favorite song cycle after _Winterreise._ I don't really have a favorite singer for this one.

Beethoven's _An die ferne Geliebte_ ("To the Distant Beloved") is often labeled as the first real song cycle. It's short and poignant and beautiful. Listen to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's recording.

Janacek's _Zápisník zmizelého_ ("Diary of One Who Disappeared") is 20th century but seems to me to be very much in the tradition of the Romantic song cycle. Lots of pastoral imagery, and just sort of a neoromantic feel at times. I don't actually know how "angsty" this one is since I haven't yet been able to find an English translation of the whole cycle, just the song titles. But I do know that this one ends happily. And it is beautiful, ethereal, evocative music. Listen to Ian Bostridge's recording.


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## moody

PetrB said:


> That orchestrated version, sans voice? Yeah. Hated it


Is this a joke,the question must be why for heaven' sake?
Now I hear there is a voice--that's a blessing but it looks suspicious to me'


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## PetrB

SerbenthumInDerMusik said:


> It's not without voice, Hans Blochwitz is singing the tenor part. Are you talking about a different recording or did you already get bored before he joined in? :lol:
> 
> I second the recommendation for Hotter's WR and Mussorgsky's songs!


I recall an orchestration - chamber dimensions, which got a lot of good 'press,' and it was without voice... or my memory of so long ago is extremely faulty. Some 'good' orchestrations from piano accompaniments just don't do it for me, another clear in recall is a handful of orchestrations by John Adams of Charles Ives songs.


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## joen_cph

There is an even earlier Fischer-Dieskau "Winterreise", from 1948, with Klaus Billing on the piano, which I have as a double LP. Early FD can be very moving, and his voice was quite different back then if compared to the later recordings. It is a somewhat old-fashioned and long-drawn version though.

But I also like Theo Adam/Duncke and some of Ulrik Cold/Mikkelsen.


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## Norse

You should check out Schwanengesang, if you haven't already. It's a little different from Die Schöne Müllerin and Wintererreise in that it's not based on a poem cycle with a narrative thread through it, but more just a collection of songs. I'm not a lieder connoisseur, but I tend to be happy with Fischer-Dieskau for this sort of thing.


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## mensch

Norse said:


> You should check out Schwanengesang, if you haven't already. It's a little different from Die Schöne Müllerin and Wintererreise in that it's not based on a poem cycle with a narrative thread through it, but more just a collection of songs.


It also contains one of Schubert's most powerful songs, "Der Doppelgänger". All that anguish is immediately followed by a bundle of sheer delight: "Die Taubenpost" which closes the collection. As Norse says, Schwanengesang is not a cycle like Winterreise or Die Schöne Müllerin, but I'm glad it exists as the collection that it is. The six Lieder with text by Heine are Schubert at his most emotional and sometimes desperate.

I've recently started listening to the aforementioned Lieder by Mahler and Wolf. Try the Mörike Lieder by Wolf, they're great late-Romantic stuff. As for Mahler, I tend to prefer the versions for voice and piano over the orchestrated versions. But this is strictly personal taste, I generally like the intimacy of chamber music over the grandness of the symphonic orchestra.


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## xuantu

Many great recordings of Schubert's Winterreise has been mentioned in this thread already. Here I would like to add a few lines of recommendation for Peter Pears/Benjamin Britten's tenor version on Decca. Many people dislike Pears' voice, but he knows exactly how to project emotions and characterize each song. He is a singer with a free and creative spirit and his version constantly finds in Britten an accompanist of unusually refined taste. Together they made Winterreise a highly reflective journey, less desolate than most but incredibly moving.

I often think of Die Schone Mullerin as a more organically structured song cycle (and therefore works better) than Winterreise. Ian Bostridge & Graham Johnson's 1995 version from the famous Hyperion complete edition is one of my favorite recordings of any song cycle, because the young Bostridge conveys both the youthful, boy-like sound and the young miller's vulnerable, impulsive soul most convincingly. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau & Gerald Moore's earlier version on EMI is also very good (I generally don't like baritones in this cycle; imo, tenor voices with heroic attributes also do not fit well here).

The semi-cycle Schwanengesang is a collection of some of Schubert's last songs. The Heine songs, with their austere, eeriely dark sound world and deep, stripped-to-the-bone feelings, are probably my favorite Schubert songs (I fully concur with mensch's observation there). Fischer-Dieskau & Moore produced a terrifyingly powerful reading on DG; the tenor version by Peter Schreier and Andras Schiff (using the poet's ordering in the Heine songs) on Decca is equally insightful.

Many song recital discs with mixed program items are wonderful to collect too; they often spotlight individual singers of particular qualities and/or have themes that unify the material. This next disc of a Schubert recital made by Janet Baker and Graham Johnson for hyperion's Schubert edition is well worth getting even if you don't intend to buy the complete set. This is not only because the artistry on display here is very high, but also because Baker made some unusual song choices for a fairly "traditional" idea, namely a recital of Schubert songs based on Goethe & Schiller texts. For example, even in these days one does not usually get to hear "Der Jungling am Bache", "Nahe des Geliebten" and the long "Die Ervartung" in concerts, yet they are lovely Schubert nonetheless. The hyperion Schubert lieder discs no longer come with the interesting and information-rich notes authored by Johnson himself, but it seems that some of the notes to individuals songs can still be found on the hyperion website.









German mezzo Christa Ludwig was a much celebrated lied singer in her days (now retired) but was woefully under-recorded in this repertory. The disc shown bellow is a recital by her and her mentor, pianist Erik Werba, captured live at the 1984 Salzburg festival. It contains some of the most beautiful lieder composed by Richard Strauss and Hugo Wolf, and Ludwig was completely the mistress of her art.









The French art song tradition parallel to the German lied is called "melodie". It is a more objective and descriptive art form (as opposed to the more romantic and passionate lied), finished with an enigmatic Gallic charm. Some say Debussy to the French song is what Schubert to the German lied. The French baritone Gerard Souzay's easy-to-get Debussy recital on DG (made with pianist Dalton Baldwin) is among this melodie specialist's personal best.









The Swedish mezzo Anne Sofie von Otter is a uncannily apt interpreter of Scandinavia songs. Her recital of Grieg songs made with pianist Bengt Forsberg has long been a listeners' favorite since its release in 1993.


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## moody

When Schubert introduced his friends to "Winterreise" he announced :'I will sing for you a cycle of Schauerlich (shuddering) lieder.'
So I am sure that normally the cycle suits the darker voice ,there are exceptions however.But note that that the work's first published edition was within the normal baritone range.
That being said one of the most interesting versions is that by the legendary Lotte Lehmann pieced together from recordings made between 1939-40 .It is in an entirely convincing grand romantic Byronic style.
The baritone Gerhard Huesch in his 1930 recording presents an almost Lear-like tragic view,' he pushes out its meaning through consonants and vowels exquisitely placed in legato arches'.
Hans Hotter's definitive recording is that of 1955 with Gerald Moorenwhich expresses many shades of darkness as well as brighter, more convincing moments of what he clearly sees as hope. He is a bass-baritone.
The great Wagner bass Josef Greindl recorded the cycle in 1957 for DG and it is almost mesmeric, the interpretation is of total weariness and resignation.I hope it becomes available again.
The other very bleak rendition is that of the tenor Peter Anders live in Cologne in 1948 (Acanta CD}. this is one of the most harrowing versions ever made.
That of Peter Pears although intelligent and obviously caring is, for me, put out of court by the relatively poor German.
Gerrard Souzay's 1963 recording presents a strong,immediate and intense reading with his marvellous accompanist Dalton Baldwin.
I am not keen on Fischer-Dieskau's Schubert. 

"Schwanengesang" was invented after Schubert's death by his publisher sticking together seven Rellstab and six Heine settings and Seidl's "Taubenpost" was thrown in to avoid an unlucky number. It was given a 'lachrymose,catchpenny title because the Seidl song was the composer's last'.
The title has stuck and, more unfortunately, the sense that this miscellany must be respected and made somehow to adhere'.

"Die Schoene Muellerin" is at the opposite end of the spectrum from "Winterreise", the 'hero' is an apprentice miller lad and therefore
the ideal singer is from the tenor range.
The thing with this cycle is to avoid the overtly interventionist approach as displayed by DF-D. where songs tend to be over phrased and tonal contrasts pushed to excess.thus vitiating the obvious beauty of the singers tone.
The tenor Aksel Schiotz tends toward the other extreme ,relying on tonal beauty and the overriding importance of line, I play this often.
A baritone has a problem persuading us that he is a boy in love but there is an exception and that is Gerrard Souzay. His recording is ,to me, the most satisfying and he does suggest a young man by lighteninmg his tone so cleverly.
Peter Schreier has recorded it successfully and also versions with a) fortepiano and b) guitar.


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## Ukko

/\ Hey, excellent survey, _moody_. I am copying it out for reference.


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## SiegendesLicht

I _absolutely adore _Winterreise. Just to let you know


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## SerbenthumInDerMusik

Another good Winterreise is by Peter Schreier with Andras Schiff. 








Interesting voice, disciplined and precise but also able to project drama and hysteria. There is another recording of his with S.Richter.

I've yet to hear Wunderlich's version, but my hopes are not high.


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## Vaneyes

SiegendesLicht said:


> I _absolutely adore _Winterreise. Just to let you know


Good, then you'll worship this rec.

View attachment 10348


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## DavidA

For Wintereisse the most heart rending recording by Schreier / Richter. It is the most incredible recording made live. It conveys the despair of the music more than any other version and also the sheer beauty of the piano writing. Unfortunately it was made before of bronchial audience who seem afflicted with the flu most of the time. You do have to put up with rather a number of coughs which are fairly distracting some people. But for me it is the greatest performance of the piece on disc. Coughs and all it is certainly worth hearing. The experience of a lifetime to great artists coming together in the greatest song cycle of all. Even Schreier Couldn't repeat the intensity when he recorded the work later For Decca, good though that performance is.


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## DavidA

SerbenthumInDerMusik said:


> Another good Winterreise is by Peter Schreier with Andras Schiff.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Interesting voice, disciplined and precise but also able to project drama and hysteria. There is another recording of his with S.Richter.
> 
> I've yet to hear Wunderlich's version, but my hopes are not high.


As far as I know Wunderlich never recorded Wintereisse. I have Die Schone Mullerin by him but I must confess I was exceedingly disappointed in the interpretation, despite The magnificence of the voice itself.


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## AndyS

Schubert is a composer that remains largely unexplored by me - I have the Hotter/Moore Winterreise, which I love, but which I bought more because I'm a fan of Hotter than anything else. I don't feel the need to own any other versions at the moment

My favourite cycles are Brahms' Four Serious Songs (I love Kirsten Flagstad singing this) and Debussy's Trois Chansons de Bilitis... although saying that, it's a favourite when Regine Crespin sings it, I've heard others doing it and it's done nothing for me (even Christa Ludwig, who I think is wonderful in everything else I've heard her in)


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## PMarlowe

I mentioned the 17-CD collection called "Schubert Lieder on Record" in another thread. It is a great way to listen to various interpretations over the past 100+ years, and it can be had for around $30.

Since buying that CD, I've begun to focus a bit more on CDs by individual artists. Though personal preferences vary (as the above and many on-line reviews I've seen indicate), try the 1942 version of Winterreise by Hans Hotter (even if, like me, you don't particularly enjoy his 1954 version).

I like the clips of Souzay I've heard, but CDs of his recordings seem to be a bit on the rare side. I'd love to get a copy of this set, but not for $200!


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## SixFootScowl

I have struggled for several years with lieder. Something about singing with piano accompaniment just didn't work for me. I even didn't like violin sonatas because they most often were accompanied by a piano. Well now that I have tickets to see Joyce DiDonato sing Wintereise next mongh, I am getting excited about it and so bought the excellent mezzo set with Brigitte Fassbaender. I also could not resist getting the contralto set with Nathalie Stutzmann after happening upon it.

So I see that Janet Baker did Winterreise, but what other female voice sets are there? I think I recall there is a soprano set.

For male, is it just tenor, or do they also have baritone and bass?


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## wkasimer

> So I see that Janet Baker did Winterreise, but what other female voice sets are there? I think I recall there is a soprano set.


A few sopranos off the top of my head - Barbara Hendricks, Lotte Lehmann, and Lois Marshall. I don't believe that Janet Baker ever recorded Winterreise, but Christa Ludwig did, with James Levine.



> For male, is it just tenor, or do they also have baritone and bass?


Dozens of baritones and basses have recorded Winterreise. Recent ones worth hearing are by Gerald Finley, Christian Gerhaher, Matthew Rose, and Gunther Groissböck.


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## SixFootScowl

Oh, I thought I saw Janet Baker in post 17, but apparently a different work was being illustrated there.


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## Dimace

PMarlowe said:


> I mentioned the 17-CD collection called "Schubert Lieder on Record" in another thread. It is a great way to listen to various interpretations over the past 100+ years, and it can be had for around $30.
> 
> Since buying that CD, I've begun to focus a bit more on CDs by individual artists. Though personal preferences vary (as the above and many on-line reviews I've seen indicate), try the 1942 version of Winterreise by Hans Hotter (even if, like me, you don't particularly enjoy his 1954 version).
> 
> I like the clips of Souzay I've heard, but CDs of his recordings seem to be a bit on the rare side. I'd love to get a copy of this set, but not for $200!
> 
> View attachment 35684


I have this, and although I'm not keen on Schuberts Lieder (I like more these by R. Strauss and Liszt) I admit is very beautiful and very collectible. You must know that in Europe we have more cd recordings (I can remember three of four) with Gerard and are all very good.


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## Reichstag aus LICHT

wkasimer said:


> A few sopranos off the top of my head - Barbara Hendricks, Lotte Lehmann, and Lois Marshall.


Brigitte Fassbaender's recording accompanied by Aribert Reimann is particularly good.


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## elgar's ghost

Reichstag aus LICHT said:


> Brigitte Fassbaender's recording accompanied by Aribert Reimann is particularly good.


I like her _Schwanengesang_ set with Reimann but I'd like to compliment it with a recording by a male singer.


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## SixFootScowl

Reichstag aus LICHT said:


> Brigitte Fassbaender's recording accompanied by Aribert Reimann is particularly good.


Agree, though she is listed as mezzo-soprano, so I guess she qualifies in the soprano category?


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## Dimace

Fritz Kobus said:


> Agree, though she is listed as mezzo-soprano, so I guess she qualifies in the soprano category?


Brigitte is qualified simply for everything! Unbelievable voice range and quality beyond this earth! She made the BEST Liszt songs EVER! Everything she's doing is for me a must!


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## wkasimer

elgars ghost said:


> I like her _Schwanengesang_ set with Reimann but I'd like to compliment it with a recording by a male singer.


Try Bryn Terfel, Matthew Rose, Hans Hotter, or Gunther Groissböck.


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## wahidovic

moody said:


> When Schubert introduced his friends to "Winterreise" he announced :'I will sing for you a cycle of Schauerlich (shuddering) lieder.'
> So I am sure that normally the cycle suits the darker voice ,there are exceptions however.But note that that the work's first published edition was within the normal baritone range.
> That being said one of the most interesting versions is that by the legendary Lotte Lehmann pieced together from recordings made between 1939-40 .It is in an entirely convincing grand romantic Byronic style.
> The baritone Gerhard Huesch in his 1930 recording presents an almost Lear-like tragic view,' he pushes out its meaning through consonants and vowels exquisitely placed in legato arches'.
> Hans Hotter's definitive recording is that of 1955 with Gerald Moorenwhich expresses many shades of darkness as well as brighter, more convincing moments of what he clearly sees as hope. He is a bass-baritone.
> The great Wagner bass Josef Greindl recorded the cycle in 1957 for DG and it is almost mesmeric, the interpretation is of total weariness and resignation.I hope it becomes available again.
> The other very bleak rendition is that of the tenor Peter Anders live in Cologne in 1948 (Acanta CD}. this is one of the most harrowing versions ever made.
> That of Peter Pears although intelligent and obviously caring is, for me, put out of court by the relatively poor German.
> Gerrard Souzay's 1963 recording presents a strong,immediate and intense reading with his marvellous accompanist Dalton Baldwin.
> I am not keen on Fischer-Dieskau's Schubert.
> 
> "Schwanengesang" was invented after Schubert's death by his publisher sticking together seven Rellstab and six Heine settings and Seidl's "Taubenpost" was thrown in to avoid an unlucky number. It was given a 'lachrymose,catchpenny title because the Seidl song was the composer's last'.
> The title has stuck and, more unfortunately, the sense that this miscellany must be respected and made somehow to adhere'.
> 
> "Die Schoene Muellerin" is at the opposite end of the spectrum from "Winterreise", the 'hero' is an apprentice miller lad and therefore
> the ideal singer is from the tenor range.
> The thing with this cycle is to avoid the overtly interventionist approach as displayed by DF-D. where songs tend to be over phrased and tonal contrasts pushed to excess..Lucky Patcher 9Apps VidMate thus vitiating the obvious beauty of the singers tone.
> The tenor Aksel Schiotz tends toward the other extreme ,relying on tonal beauty and the overriding importance of line, I play this often.
> A baritone has a problem persuading us that he is a boy in love but there is an exception and that is Gerrard Souzay. His recording is ,to me, the most satisfying and he does suggest a young man by lighteninmg his tone so cleverly.
> Peter Schreier has recorded it successfully and also versions with a) fortepiano and b) guitar.


did you make sure that the most interesting version is that of the legendary Lotte Lehmann, reconstituted from recordings made between 1939 and 1940? because I read in another book that the version was made between 1938 and 1939
thank you very much in any case for this information
Thank you for this valuable information that you have been looking for since time


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## SixFootScowl

Here is something interesting I found. Fassbaender and Ludwig have recorded Winterreise multiple times:

Fassbaender: Aribert Reimann, piano 1988
Fassbaender: Wolfram Rieger, Piano 1995

Ludwig: James Levine, piano 1983
Ludwig: James Levine, piano 1986
Ludwig: James Levine, piano 1988
Ludwig: Erik Werba, piano 1978
Ludwig: Erik Werba, piano 1980
Ludwig: Erik Werba, piano 1984
Ludwig: Erik Werba, piano 1986


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## SixFootScowl

Anybody know about this one:


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## wkasimer

Fritz Kobus said:


> Here is something interesting I found. Fassbaender and Ludwig have recorded Winterreise multiple times:
> 
> Fassbaender: Aribert Reimann, piano 1988
> Fassbaender: Wolfram Rieger, Piano 1995
> 
> Ludwig: James Levine, piano 1983
> Ludwig: James Levine, piano 1986
> Ludwig: James Levine, piano 1988
> Ludwig: Erik Werba, piano 1978
> Ludwig: Erik Werba, piano 1980
> Ludwig: Erik Werba, piano 1984
> Ludwig: Erik Werba, piano 1986


I suspect that there's only one studio recording by Christa Ludwig; the others would be broadcasts of live recitals.


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## wkasimer

Fritz Kobus said:


> Anybody know about this one:


It's a very good performance, if one doesn't mind a woman singing. I don't, but I do prefer hearing a tenor or high baritone in this cycle. I'd say that it's a recording that is worth for someone who already has a dozen or so recordings of Winterreise. Among women who've recorded the cycle, I would say that both Fassbaender and Lehmann are more compelling.


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## SixFootScowl

wkasimer said:


> It's a very good performance, if one doesn't mind a woman singing. I don't, but I do prefer hearing a tenor or high baritone in this cycle. I'd say that it's a recording that is worth for someone who already has a dozen or so recordings of Winterreise. Among women who've recorded the cycle, I would say that both Fassbaender and Lehmann are more compelling.


I am more female singer oriented, but if I buy a male vocal Winterriese, it would be Jonas Kaufmann. Lois Marshall is very captivating to me and I am inclined to get it, but should check out Lehmann. I have Stutzmann (contralto) and Fassbaender (alto) and enjoy both. There also is one sung in English translation but I think that would be a letdown. I rather shall study the English translation so I know it and continue to listen in German. Oh, I saw Joyce DiDonato sing this in December and it was awesome. If she records it I'll be buying.


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## SixFootScowl

What are some good Winterreise recordings with a soprano?


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## wkasimer

Fritz Kobus said:


> What are some good Winterreise recordings with a soprano?


The best one is probably Lotte Lehmann's, but the one by Lois Marshall is also fine. The only other one I can think of is Barbara Hendricks'.


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## SixFootScowl

wkasimer said:


> The best one is probably Lotte Lehmann's, but the one by Lois Marshall is also fine. The only other one I can think of is Barbara Hendricks'.


Oh, I have Lois Marshall. Why was I thinking she is mezzo. Perhaps because the CD cover says she is, but Google searches say she is a soprano.


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## SixFootScowl

Oh wow! An orchestrated version. Sound clips here.


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## SixFootScowl

Just ordered this one which has a fine bass vocalist, Matthew Rose.


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## DavidA

Fritz Kobus said:


> Agree, though she is listed as mezzo-soprano, so I guess she qualifies in the soprano category?


She is a Mezzo-soprano


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## DavidA

Fritz Kobus said:


> Oh wow! An orchestrated version. Sound clips here.


I have heard it. Ruins Schubert's effects to me.


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## Reichstag aus LICHT

Fritz Kobus said:


> Oh, I have Lois Marshall. Why was I thinking she is mezzo. Perhaps because the CD cover says she is, but Google searches say she is a soprano.


I see that Mr Kuerti is the accompanist. With a name like that, he was destined to play keyboards.


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## wkasimer

DavidA said:


> She is a Mezzo-soprano


Look at her bio and repertoire, which screams "soprano".


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## RockyIII

I haven't heard the other recordings mentioned, but I have this one with Jonas Kaufmann and enjoy it.

View attachment 112447


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## SixFootScowl

wkasimer said:


> Look at her bio and repertoire, which screams "soprano".


I guess the real proof is in the listening and as I recall, she sounds rather mezzo on the Winterreise recording. This was done later in her life, so maybe her voice transitioned down with age?


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## wkasimer

wkasimer said:


> The best one is probably Lotte Lehmann's, but the one by Lois Marshall is also fine. The only other one I can think of is Barbara Hendricks'.


I forgot about the recording by Margaret Price, with Thomas Dewey:


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## wkasimer

Fritz Kobus said:


> Just ordered this one which has a fine bass vocalist, Matthew Rose.


It's excellent. If you like a bass voice in this cycle, try Günter Groissböck:


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## Barbebleu

wkasimer said:


> It's excellent. If you like a bass voice in this cycle, try Günter Groissböck:
> 
> View attachment 112459


Better still, Hans Hotter.


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## DavidA

RockyIII said:


> I haven't heard the other recordings mentioned, but I have this one with Jonas Kaufmann and enjoy it.
> 
> View attachment 112447


Yes good - in the ~John Vickers mould but not so extreme


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## NLAdriaan

I really like the (late) Fischer-Dieskau with Alfred Brendel from 1985. Maybe it adds to the credibility as both performers are in the fall or even winter of their musical career. I also very much follow Peter Schreier with Richter, live in Dresden at the re-opening festivities of the Semperoper, also in 1985, in the fall of the GDR's existence. Interestingly, both recordings were made within 5 moths and in Berlin and Dresden. Must have been something in the air that year in that part of Germany.

I find the Hans Zender orchestration interesting, from a musical point of view. The Leiermann, just painful with its dissonants... However, the drama and isolation of the song cycle is better served with a single piano. 

One of the pinnacles of music, the Winterreise.


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## Barbebleu

Try this out for something different but just delightful.


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## DavidA

NLAdriaan said:


> I really like the (late) Fischer-Dieskau with Alfred Brendel from 1985. Maybe it adds to the credibility as both performers are in the fall or even winter of their musical career. I also very much follow Peter Schreier with Richter, live in Dresden at the re-opening festivities of the Semperoper, also in 1985, in the fall of the GDR's existence. Interestingly, both recordings were made within 5 moths and in Berlin and Dresden. *Must have been something in the air that year in that part of Germany.*
> 
> I find the Hans Zender orchestration interesting, from a musical point of view. The Leiermann, just painful with its dissonants... However, the drama and isolation of the song cycle is better served with a single piano.
> 
> One of the pinnacles of music, the Winterreise.


Unfortunately, bronchitis was in the air for the Schreier / Richter performances. Surely in this digital age engineers can eliminate the irritating coughs?


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