COMPOSERS: Schubert
LABELS: DG Galleria
WORKS: Winterreise
PERFORMER: Andreas Schmidt (baritone) Rudolf Jansen (piano)
CATALOGUE NO: 453 987-2 1992
This Winterreise is admirably musical, subtle, natural and polished. It also fails to convey any sense of deeply felt experience. Schmidt’s pliant, pleasing voice does not range widely enough within the expressive continua of dynamics, articulation and verbal inflection to touch on either yearning or despair. Jansen’s alert, streamlined playing makes these songs seem brief, uneventful, and simply constructed – a point irrelevant if not unthinkable in more committed and imaginative performances of this shattering cycle. David Breckbill
Schubert: Winterreise
This Winterreise is admirably musical, subtle, natural and polished. It also fails to convey any sense of deeply felt experience. Schmidt’s pliant, pleasing voice does not range widely enough within the expressive continua of dynamics, articulation and verbal inflection to touch on either yearning or despair. Jansen’s alert, streamlined playing makes these songs seem brief, uneventful, and simply constructed – a point irrelevant if not unthinkable in more committed and imaginative performances of this shattering cycle. David Breckbill
Our rating
2
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:39 pm