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LINN, GLASGOW ROAD, WATERFOOT, GLASGOW G76 0EQ UK t: +44 (0)141 303 5027/9 f: +44 (0)141 303 5007 e: [email protected] Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828) Franz Schubert Winterreise Winterreise, Op.89, D.911 Peter Harvey baritone 1 Gute Nacht 2 Die Wetterfahne Gary Cooper piano 3 Gefrorne Tränen 4 Erstarrung 5 Der Lindenbaum 6 Wasserflut 7 Auf dem Flusse 8 Rückblick 9 Irrlicht 10 Rast 11 Frühlingstraum 12 Einsamkeit 13 Die Post 14 Der greise Kopf 15 Die Krähe 16 Letzte Hoffnung 17 Im Dorfe 18 Der stürmische Morgen 19 Täuschung 20 Der Wegweiser 21 Das Wirtshaus 22 Mut 23 Die Nebensonnen 24 Der Leiermann 2 3 Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828) : Winterreise, Op.89, D.911 one has the impression of drawing into oneself, essential to the portrayal of the inner drama of the piece. Another consequence of the light stringing is that lower Winterreise is a song cycle with which I have been fascinated since long before I transpositions can be used without risk of muddying the sound. This gave us greater started to have serious notions of singing. The bitter-sweet musical language and freedom to use key relationships which adhere more closely to Schubert’s original bleak text chimed well with my adolescent self, and, much later in life, I find that scheme, which is at odds with common practice, where the standard ‘medium voice’ it still resonates. Having worked so much in the world of ‘historical performance’, editions employ a mixture of transposed and untransposed keys. We were thus able for this recording it was natural to look afresh at how we might approach the piece. to preserve a subliminal aspect of the work’s beauty – the colour of the silence Certain decisions were easy to take – the use of a fortepiano, for instance – but between the songs, and the frisson generated at the first chord of the following others, such as which transpositions to adopt (baritones sing the songs in lower keys piece. An example would be the resolution of the silence between ‘Der Wegweiser’ than the original, which had a tenor voice in mind), whether to reinstate Müller’s (F minor) and ‘Das Wirtshaus’ (Eb major), whose particular poignancy is lost without text in the places where Schubert modified it, and how to order the songs, were this sinking downwards into the major key. interesting questions to consider. It was interesting to consider Schubert’s various subtle changes to Müller’s text. In using a copy of an 1823 Brodmann piano (by David Winston) for this recording, our They tend towards a tauter expression, removing any suggestion of comic overtones intention was to recreate something of the sound world Schubert would have known. or misconstructions, which Schubert clearly felt were of some importance, since on Rather than using equal temperament, the instrument was tuned in a modified two occasions his alterations break the rhyme scheme. In ‘Der Wegweiser’ Müller’s form of Valotti temperament, favouring keys with fewer sharps and flats, whilst third verse begins: “Weiser stehen auf den Straßen” – by the roads – which Schubert accommodating more extreme ones. Working on Winterreise with a fortepiano was changes to “Wegen” – by the ways – ensuring that the Wanderer is still fixed firmly a revelation, for such an instrument proves marvellously flexible, with dynamics and in the wilderness; in ‘Im Dorfe’ the villagers simply sleep, where Müller has them colours unavailable to the modern grand piano – indeed, the piano is capable of snore, which carries the risk that an overzealous interpreter might distract from such extremes of pianissimo that the sounds of certain keyboard and pedal actions the austerity of the scene with a comical portrayal of the word. There seems every ocasionally become audible. Our focus throughout this recording has been to convey reason to trust Schubert’s instincts with regard to these minor, but considered, the spirit of a real performance, and to tell the story with honesty and immediacy. modifications. Even the title itself was abbreviated by Schubert from Die“ Winterreise” In doing so, we were inspired by the special sound qualities made possible in using to simply “Winterreise”, omitting the definite article in a way which makes for a such an instrument, so haunting and far removed from the powerful, strong tones briefer, bolder title, and possibly also hints that this is more than a literal account of a modern instrument. of a single journey, and has a wider, symbolic meaning. The order in which Müller The combination of light strings and dampers means that the strings can be allowed published, and in which Schubert encountered and then set the poems, is mentioned to reverberate in a highly atmospheric way, while the ‘moderator’ (a subtly adjustable elsewhere, but from a musical perpective, the logic of Schubert’s sequence of songs felt muffler) allows the singer to sing in a way which would be difficult to balance is incontestable, and it is with an inexorable sense of direction that this drama of an with a modern instrument, creating a sense of performing for an intimate audience. increasingly disordered mind unfolds. Considering these practical questions helps In singing Winterreise, no matter what size the hall, there are many moments when determine the broad nature of a performance; ultimately, however, the overriding 4 5 requirement is to enter into this barren landscape with all the imagination one can possesses of his sweetheart. The poetic stand-bys of blossom, flowers and lush muster, taking a journey into what one hopes will otherwise remain rarely visited grass have greater weight for bearing the opposite of their usual meaning – these recesses of one’s own mind. emblems of spring are dead, withered or imaginary. Two animals carrying particular inverted symbolism appear in the narrative: the crow, vulture-like, becomes an ironic For Winterreise is as much a psychological journey as a literal one. The narrative, such symbol of constancy (‘Die Krähe’); the various dogs, hardly in the spirit of man’s best as it is, is simply told: the protagonist has apparently been living in the household of friend, symbolise rejection, first baying as he leaves at the start of his journey (‘Gute his beloved; it would seem that he has been there as a tutor of some kind – a poet Nacht’), then denying him any welcome in the village (‘Im Dorfe’), and finally, as they or musician, perhaps – who has become entangled with his young charge. Despite snarl around the organ-grinder (‘Der Leiermann’), foreshadowing what we imagine her love for him, and the mother’s apparent approval, the father evidently has other will be his permanent marginalisation from society. plans for his daughter. He leaves out of necessity, and as a Wanderer – that Romantic archetype – sets out on a harrowing journey where he finds no consolation, either Isolation is the central theme in Winterreise; fellow humans are conspicuous by in human company, the natural world, or religion. It ends with him contemplating their absence and the only speech – other than his own mutterings – is the imagined a bleak future where he is left to wander alone and without hope. This is the bare beckoning by the linden tree (‘Der Lindenbaum’). The cottage where he seeks outline, but it is remarkable, during the course of the whole work, how hazy and refuge in ‘Rast’, and where, presumably, he sees the frost on the window-panes two-dimensional this external reality remains. We are given no hint as to the name, (‘Frühlingstraum’) and fails to receive any letters (‘Die Post’), seems to contain no character or appearance of the Wanderer’s sweetheart, and the world around him is hint of the charcoal-burner himself. However, ‘Das Wirtshaus’ brings a shadowy represented by a series of images – a river, a tree, a leaf a crow, and so forth – whose sense of human presence; in this poignant song, the graveyard is ironically likened interest lies not in any intrinsic characteristics they possess, rather in the symbolic to an inn, as he considers finding repose there in death. He is surely contemplating meaning he projects onto them. He repeatedly sees a likeness (‘Bild’) of himself suicide, but as a suicide he would be denied a christian burial – hence there being and his state of mind reflected in this inanimate, frozen world (‘Auf dem Flusse’ and no room at the inn. Clearly, this is what leads to his rejection of religion in ‘Mut’, ‘Mut’, for instance), and finds significance in everything he beholds (the wind in ‘Die the following song. However, does Schubert perhaps add another layer to Müller’s Wetterfahne’, for instance, and again, playing with his hopes in ‘Letzte Hoffnung’). meaning? The chordal piano accompaniment, with its descant counter-melody Thus, the featureless, snow-shrouded outer world is held up as a frozen mirror to the in the second verse, is suggestive of a service taking place within (or, somewhat turmoil of his vivid inner one.