The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Today is the Winter Solstice and winter officially starts. The Ear greets it once again by listening to Franz Schubert’s song cycle “Winterreise.”
3 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
Despite all the snow and cold of the past few weeks, winter officially begins today.
The winter solstice, bringing with it the longest night of the year, arrives today at 4:44 a.m., Central Standard Time, this morning, Wednesday, Dec. 21.
To mark the occasion, people often listen to appropriate music such as the “Winter” section of “The Four Seasons” by Antonio Vivaldi or the “Winter Dreams” Symphony by Peter Tchaikovsky.
Over the past several years, something else has become a tradition for The Ear.
Every year on the arrival of the Winter Solstice, he listens to a recording of the song cycle “Winterreise” (Winter Journey”) by Franz Schubert.
It takes about 70 minutes.
One unforgettable hour plus.
Too bad it isn’t performed live every year or featured every year on Wisconsin Public Radio.
There are so many excellent recordings of the work.
Over the years, The Ear has listened to the songs performed in recordings by Dietrich Fischer Dieskau, Haken Hagegard, Mark Padmore, Jonas Kaufmann and UW-Madison baritone Paul Rowe, who one year did perform it live with pianist Martha Fischer on the Winter Solstice at the First Unitarian Society of Madison *(below) — and it was magical.
Yet his favorite remains the version by the English tenor Ian Bostridge with Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes for EMI Records. (Bostridge also made one for Hyperion Records with pianist Julius Drake.)
The Ear likes the way Bostridge uses a kind of Sprachstimme or speech singing to bring expressiveness to the music. He also like the touch of lightness that the tenor range brings to the music, which is plenty dark by itself.
Also, every year, The Ear sees if he has a new favorite song in the cycle. But so far he still has two favorites, which you can find on YouTube along with the rest of the cycle.
One is the opening song, “Gute Nacht” or “Good Night.” It is hard to imagine a better way to kick off the mysterious cycle than with such an obviously metaphorical song in which “night” plays so many roles and has so many meanings.
Here it is:
And of course, he also loves the last song, “Der Leiermann” or “The Organ Grinder.” Listen to its alternation with between voice and piano, to that drone broken by silence showing despair, solitude and loneliness, and you understand why it was also a favorite of the great modernist playwright Samuel Beckett.
Here it is:
The Ear wishes you a hopeful winter – despite all the signs that it will instead be a winter of deep discontent – and hopes you will find time to take in “Winterreise.”
It is Franz Schubert’s winter journey.
But it is also my own and yours.
Here is Bostridge talking about what the cycle means to him:
Enjoy.
And tell us if you have a favorite performance of “Winterreise” and why?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: Arts, baritone, Chamber music, Classical music, cold, Compact Disc, cycle, depair, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Dreams, drone, EMI, First Unitarian Society of Madison, Four Season, Franz Schubert, Haken Hagegard, Hyperion, Ian Bostridge, Jacob Stockinger, Jonas Kaufmann, Leif Ove Andsnes, loneliness, Madison, Mark Padmore, Martha Fischer, metaphor, modernist, Music, night, organ, organ grinder, Paul Rowe, Piano, playwright, Samuel Beckett, Singing, snow, solitude, solstice, song, song cycle, Tchaikovsky, tenor, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Vivaldi, vocal music, winter, Winter Dreams, Winterreise, Wisconsin, wisconsin public radio, YouTube
Classical music: Today is the Winter Solstice. So The Ear offers you Schubert’s “Winterreise.”
2 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
Tonight we turn the corner.
At 10:48 p.m. CST we will experience the Winter Solstice.
That means that from now until late June, the days will start getting longer and the nights shorter.
True, so far we have not had much cold or snow, thanks to El Nino.
But we still have the coldest months of the season – January and February – to look forward to.
One of The Ear’s winter rituals is to listen to the song cycle “Winterreise” – winter journey – by Franz Schubert (below) on or around the first day of winter.
It is such a unique and astonishing work, so modern in so many ways.
And there are so many outstanding recorded versions of it that The Ear likes: Mark Padmore with pianist Paul Lewis; Matthias Goerner with Christoph Eschenbach; Thomas Quasthoff with Charles Spencer; Peter Schreier with Sviatolsav Richter; Hermann Prey and Karl Engel; and of course the legendary Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau with Gerald Moore, Joerg Demus and later with Alfred Brendel.
More locally, he also likes the version, complete with black-and-white photographs by Katrin Talbot that was done by UW-Madison baritone Paul Rowe with UW-Madison pianist Martha Fischer. (It is published by the University of Wisconsin Press.)
But probably The Ear’s favorite version of the amazing cycle so far is the one done by British tenor Ian Bostridge with Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. The Ear prefers the higher tenor range to the baritone range. He also likes not only Bostridge’s transparent sound and outstanding diction, but also his kind of singing speech style — Sprachstimme – that adds to the storytelling of the cycle.
The complete 70-minute cycle is available from YouTube but only by going through the 24 different videos, one per song in the cycle.
And there is a preface that features both Bostridge and Andsnes talking about the work and about performing it.
By the way, an excellent companion to the cycle is the book and e-book that Bostridge has published –- a doctoral thesis called “Schubert’s Winter Journey” Anatomy of an Obsession” (Knopf).
It is a comprehensive look at the aesthetic, historical, cultural and the literary aspects of the astonishing work and analyzes each of the 24 songs in the cycle. The Ear has read it and highly recommends this definitive study by someone who knows the famous song cycle inside and out after performing it more than 100 times.
Here is a set-up piece with pianist Jeremy Denk interviewing Ian Bostridge about his book:
And here are Bostridge and Andsnes talking about the cycle:
And “Gute Nacht” (Good Night) here is the opening song of “Winterreise”:
And “Der Leiermann,” the closing song of “Winterreise”:
The Ear urges you to sample many more, in order or out of order.
Let The Ear and other readers know which performers you prefer and which songs in the cycle are your favorite?
Tags: Alfred Brendel, Arts, baritone, Britain, Chamber music, choral music, Classical music, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, El Nino, England, Franz Schubert, Gerald Moore, Hermann Prey, Ian Bostridge, Jacob Stockinger, Jeremy Denk, Jorg Demus, Madison, Mark Padmore, Music, Norway, Paul Lewis, Peter Schreier, Piano, solstice, song cycle, Sviatoslav Richter, tenor, Thomas Quasthoff, UK, United States, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, vocal music, winter, Winterreise, Wisconsin, YouTube
Classical music: What music is good to greet the Winter Solstice today?
4 Comments
By Jacob Stockinger
The Ear has been waiting for this.
And now it is at hand,
Today we are about to turn the corner.
Today is the Winter Solstice (below), the first day of winter, when the days finally start getting longer and the nights shorter.
Officially, the Winter Solstice arrives at 5:03 p.m. CST in the Northern Hemisphere.
The Ear has even heard about quite a few parties being held to mark the event.
And parties need music.
Here are a few selections of classical music to get you in the right frame of mind to celebrate the Winter Solstice.
The composers include well-known works and composers like the Baroque violin concertos “The Four Seasons” by Antonio Vivaldi; the Classical-era oratorios “The Creation” and “The Seasons” by Franz Joseph Haydn; a section of a Romantic symphony by Peter Illich Tchaikovsky, and a piano miniature by the Impressionist Claude Debussy.
But there are unknown ones too.
http://www.heraldnews.com/article/20131217/Blogs/312179869
But perhaps you have other favorites.
If so, please tell The Ear all about the music you listen to when you want to mark the Winter Solstice.
And here, in another version by Roger Norrington with the Handel and Haydn Society, is the “Winter” part of Haydn’s oratorio “The Four Seasons” that looks like it has been blocked from the link because of copyright infringement.
Tags: Antonio Vivaldi, Arts, Baroque, Baroque music, Cello, Chamber music, Christmas, Classical era, Classical music, Debussy, Early music, Earth, Handel and Haydn Society, Haydn, Impressionism, Jacob Stockinger, Northern Hemisphere, oratorio, Orchestra, Peter Tchaikovsky, Piano, Roger Norrington, Romantic, solstice, symphony, winter, winter solstice, YouTube, Yule
Recent Comments
 | Mary Friedel-Hunt on What do you think of the… |
 | music88 on Yunchan Lim’s Chopin etudes ar… |
 | diacon2 on Who was the better pianist? Ma… |
 | welltemperedear on Classical music: Madison Opera… |
| welltemperedear on Classical music: Was Bernard H… |
The Well-Tempered Ear 