Customer Reviews

Schubert: Die Winterreise

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Peter anders is largely forgotten on this side of the Atlantic, lost between Richard Tauber and Fritz Wunderlich; he was also unlucky in dying at age 46 in 1954 -- there are few modern-sounding recordings form him. but this wartime Winterreise is probably his finest legacy. It forms a pendant to Julius Patzak's equally anguished wartime Schoene Mullerin, and both employ the arch-romantic accompanist Michael Raucheisen. The fact that Anders made his record duing the grim Allied bombing of early 1945 as Berlin was being reduced to rubble opens the issue of how much a performer responds to events around him.

Before leaping to too many conclusions, it's worth noting that Patzak also adopts the same inward, freely phrased style, using a larger, more operatic delivery than we hear in lieder today. both singers are out to portray a suffering Romantic hero who fits the typer perfectly, since by implication both young men die of unrequited love at the end. Anders is no more agonized than patzak, although it must be conceded that many other German interpreters, especially those before the war, gave smoother, more placid and polished accounts. Like Patzak, anders is quite frree with swoops, tears, and outright sobs. I can imagine many listeners being more than a little put off by these histrionics, so perhaps these are specialized recordings. In the case of this Winterreise, the sound is clear by boxy; when Anders sings loudly there is sometimes microphone distortion. But if you actually love this kind of all-in freewheeling approach, there's nothing else quite like his 1945 recording.

It's a first complete recording sung by tenor. This Liederzyklus(song-cycle) has very desperate and pessimistic atmosphere. Many baritones-Gerhard Husch, Hans Hotter, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and many more-were recorded and performed frequently because its dark and heavy colors. But in this recording's singer-Peter Anders, sung very 'sighful' and desperate as baritones. This historical recording was made in January & March 1945 by RRG(Reichsrundfunkgesellschaft) Berlin-the year of Third Reich's collapse. Many musicians in German were killed by bombing-Hans Udo Muller who recorded this song-cycle with Gerhard Husch-, refuged other country-Wilhelm Furtwangler-and escaped to the Reich's capital. Philharmonie and Staatsoper were disappered by bombing but RRG's broadcasting station was survived fortunately. Pianist Michael Raucheisen was held the recording cycle 'Lied der Welt(Song of the World)' from 1940 to 1945(He recorded 2000 songs!). Raucheisen was recorded this work with Hans Hotter in 1942/43, too. In this recording, Anders sung so intensive when we heard. But I think it's an one of the Winterreise's unfogettable recording. This recording came to me scorched Berlin's scene and miserable 'common German people' in 1945. It testify tragic times of World War II obviously.