Schubert: Die Winterreise

Franz [Vienna] Schubert (Composer), Peter Schaaf (Performer), Jon Vickers (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Peter Schaaf, Jon Vickers
• Composer: Franz [Vienna] Schubert
• Audio CD (December 5, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Video Artists Int'l
• ASIN: B000003LII
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #422,799 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #85 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Featured Performers, A-Z > U to Z

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Die Winterreise: Gute Nacht

2. Die Winterreise: Die Wetterfahne

3. Die Winterreise: Gefror'ne Tranen

4. Die Winterreise: Erstarrung

5. Die Winterreise: Der Lindenbaum

6. Die Winterreise: Wasserflut

7. Die Winterreise: Auf dem Flusse

8. Die Winterreise: Ruckblick

9. Die Winterreise: Irrlicht

10. Die Winterreise: Rast

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Die Winterreise: Die Post

2. Die Winterreise: Der Greise Kopf

3. Die Winterreise: Die Krahe

4. Die Winterreise: Letzte Hoffnung

5. Die Winterreise: Im Dorfe

6. Die Winterreise: Der Sturmische Morgen

7. Die Winterreise: Tauschung

8. Die Winterreise: Der Wegweiser

9. Die Winterreise: Das Wirtshaus

10. Die Winterreise: Mut

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Singer's "Winterreise", September 19, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Schubert: Die Winterreise (Audio CD)

When I first started listening to this recording I was amazed by the overall slow tempi, but after three selections I was completely entranced by the Zen-like focus of Vickers' interpretation. He has obviously studied the words of the poetry intensely, and gives the listener a rapturous "Winter's Journey" indeed. In fact, one realizes that he and his pianist (Peter Schaaf) have purposely de-emphasized the steady rhythm of the music--even in the usually galloping "Die Post"--in order to greater highlight the intensity of the traveler's suffering.

The only complaint I have of this performance is that Schaaf is not really "with" Vickers emotionally: he just sort of tags along for the ride. If you want to hear a performance where the pianist provides half the drama, you must get the Peter Pears-Benjamin Britten recording on London. But Pears, for all his intelligence and intensity, simply did not have the vocal resources or inward-looking angst of Vickers. As a result, if I were to recommend only one "Winterreise," it would be this Vickers recording. This is truly a desert-island disc.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very unexpected!, February 20, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Schubert: Die Winterreise (Audio CD)

In truth for classic lieder singing you should buy performances by Fischer-Dieskau or Schreier. But anyone who has heard Jon Vickers as Tristan, Florestan, Grimes or Otello will know that the mighty voice & ability to seem possessed by the role, will bring something different.

And so it is. I have recordings of both the above, but again and again it's the Vickers voice that remains in my head - the voice held back, full of emotion, just occasionally exploding with a firepower beyond any other lieder singer I can think of.

A very remarkable achievement & some phrase, somewhere will catch you & stay with you for a very long time!

But it isn't 'classic'!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great example of the singer as poet!, April 30, 2010

By 

Stephen R. Westman "music lover" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Schubert: Die Winterreise (Audio CD)

I am utterly baffled by "Sussex Pond Pudding"'s dismissal of this performance as virtually unlistenable. "Vickers clearly cares little about the work and simply wants to let everyone hear his voice"?!!! I own a large number of Jon Vicker's performances and caring little about the work is something of which he is utterly incapable. Are you sure you aren't confusing him with Pavarotti?

Jon Vickers was clearly the greatest Wagnerian tenor - and one of the greatest tenors of any type - of the latter half of the 20th century. In some ways I feel that he is the greatest Wagnerian tenor of the entire 20th century (including Melchior) due to his ability to illuminate text. His incredible musical and human insight into each piece of music that he sings make his performances revelatory in ways that no other singer that I know of can. In the case of this performance, he brings his troubador-like capability of tonal poetic word painting TO one of the greatest pieces of music in history. His singing can range from a floating messa da voce to rafter-vibrating fortes. The point of all of this is not to show off his voice and technique, but to bring out the inner truth of each piece that he is performing - an approach that he brings with full intensity to this recording. While maybe not the traditional Fischer-Dieskau approach to Schubert (or Hans Hotter's, both of whose recording I also own), I find that this recording takes me deep inside the troubled world of the protagonist of this cycle and makes me to feel viscerally what he feels. This my friends is a great recording!!