Classical Music | Contralto

Recorded on 03/01/2003, uploaded on 06/11/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Winterreise (The Winter Journey), alongside the earlier Die schöne Müllerin, is one of Schubert's great settings of Wilhem Müller's poem cycles. Schubert set the twenty-four poems of Müller's cycle during February and October 1827, a little less than a year before his early death. In this sense, Winterreise forms a poignant parallel to Schubert's own life. Surely, in setting Müller's poems, Schubert was aware that his own life was passing into winter and he was resigning himself to that final journey. In fact, his friends noticed Schubert's deep melancholy during the composition of these songs. Schubert, himself, described them as "terrifying" and Joseph von Spaun remarked that he and the others present "were dumbfounded by [their] sombre mood" when Schubert performed them.

Müller's cycle tells the story of the poet in love. The poet, however, secretly leaves his lover's house at night when he discovers that her love has wandered to someone else. He leaves the town and follows the river to another village. During his journey, he longs for death but ultimately comes to terms with his loneliness as he wonders through the barren winter landscape. The successive poems of the cycle describe the various people and objects the poet encounters during his journey.

In the final song of Winterreise, the poet encounters an old man with his hurdy-gurdy. No one listens to him or gives him money and even the dogs bark and growl at him. Yet, the old man continues on playing taking no notice of the things around him. The poet then begins to contemplate accompanying the old man.

Franz Schubert: Winterreise - Der Leiermann
Wiebke Hoogklimmer, Contralto - Patrick Walliser, Piano
live recording