Winterreise, or Winter's Journey was composed in 1827, just a year before Schubert's premature death. The song cycle contains some of his greatest music - by turn highly emotional, desolate and spare, and with a sense of alienation and loss that makes the listener shudder even after repeated hearings. Schubert was especially proud of these songs, writing to his friend and fellow composer Josef von Spaun: 'I will sing you a cycle of eerie songs. I am keen to see what you will make of them. They have affected me more than any other songs'. The reaction of von Spaun and those gathered to hear the first performance was one of shock. The gloom and desolation of the landscape the traveler sings of, recounting happier days in the summer of love, now love lost, the bare trees, the snow, the dogs chasing him out of the village, the crows in the trees, the organ grinder playing his haunting tune in a swirl of snow left them perplexed. Schubert's sound world here is not far removed from Mahler's Kindertotenlieder some 80 years later. If he had lived beyond his 31 years the mind boggles at what he would have produced. Winterreise stands supreme in the world of song as the greatest collection of songs ever written.

Tracklist:

Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): Gute Nacht
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): Die Wetterfahne
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): Geror'ne TrÃ¤nen
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): Erstarrung
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): Der Lindenbaum
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): Wasserflut
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): Auf Dem Flusse
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): RÃ¼ckblick
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): Irrlicht 1
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): Rast 1
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): FrÃ¼hlingstraum 1
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): Einsamkeit 1
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): Die Post 1
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): Der Greise Kopf 1
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): Die KrÃ¤he 1
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): Letzte Hoffnung 1
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): Im Dorfe 1
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): Der StÃ¼rmische Morgen 1
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): TÃ¤uschung 2
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): Der Wegweiser 2
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): Das Wirtshaus 2
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): Mut 2
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): Die Nebensonnen 2
Winterreise, Song Cycle for Voice ; Piano, D. 911 (Op. 89): Der Leiermann

UPC: 842977040531
Label: Brilliant Classics
Release Date: 11.9.10
Format: CD

F. SCHUBERT - Winterreise (CD)