Customer Reviews

Schubert: Winterreise

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
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2 star:		(1)
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From the Gramophone review by Alan Blyth, 9/06: "Christine Schäfer goes at the work with a will, singing it in an urgent, rather aggressive way that provides little solace to the ear. She hurries the music along, and given that hers is very far from being the ideal voice for the work, the impression left is rather a superficial one: sopranos tackle the work at their peril. Add her partner's rough-hewn, over-recorded support and the disc is something of a write-off."

It would be unfortunate if Blyth's review were to discourage listeners from investing in this lovely recording. The reading by Christine Schafer and Eric Schneider is anything but superficial. These performers bring to the cycle a modernist sensibility: Schafer filters Schubert through Schoenberg and Berg, not infrequently applying hints of sprechstimme. Schneider, who accompanied Christine Oelze on her Webern recording, is a full partner in this approach.

The soprano voice is in no way inappropriate. The text is of course metaphorical; the narrator only nominally male. In her interpretation, Schafer discovers Goethe's fragile and unstable Mignon at the heart of the German Romantic sensibility (Schafer has recorded Schubert's Mignon settings for the Hyperion Schubert series). And further, she delineates the relationship between Winterreise's harrowing vision of alienation and that of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. Perhaps only a female singer could bring out these aspects of the cycle.

By no means are all of the tempos hurried. Schafer takes Gute Nacht at a brisk pace, treating it with detachment--as exposition, rather than autobiography. But throughout, Schafer selects dramatically appropriate tempi, and invariably finds rhythmic character that many other singers miss. With the addition of a perfect legato, she makes each piece cohere, as song.

Christine Schäfer doesn't wear her heart on her sleeve in this recording of Winterreise, she keeps it locked in the icebox. Instead of using her high soprano to embody the protagonist, she sings with understated dispatch (almost a whisper in some passages) to paint Schubert's bleak landscape. In doing so she magnifies the suppressed anguish of the wanderer. Accompanist Eric Schneider keeps the journey moving with a brisk, light touch.

The packaging is equally stark -- raised letters on a white cover as if the title were buried in snow; the poems printed one per page surrounded by blankness; an absence of commentary. Each song is displayed in uncluttered focus, letting the music speak for itself.

The first few bars are disorienting; the quick pace and trebly voice will make you think this disc is playing at the wrong speed. The 'Chipmunks' effect soon passes as you are drawn into the psychological drama. One is hesitant in laying out $20 for yet another Winterreise, but this chilling performance is well worth the money.

I agree completely with David Tegnell's review, posted above. With all due respect to the eminence of Alan Blyth, Blyth's emphatic resistance to the modernist reading undertaken by Schafer and Schneider not only discounts the musicological trajectory that justifiably links Schubert's idiom with twentieth-century innovations, it also creates the impression that "Winterreise" lies, definitely, outside Schafer's "Fach." Those who love this cycle should buy this disc and listen for themselves. Nothing -- especially when you consider the already well-stocked library of female versions of the cycle, some of which have attained iconic status -- indicates that the material is out of bounds for Schafer. More to the point, there is a complex, musky character to Schafer's timbre -- a feature her voice shares with that of her wonderful German compatriot Dorothea Roschmann, also a superb exponent of lieder -- that lends itself startlingly well to the landscape of depression, muted nostalgia, and eviscerated hope conveyed by music and text. Listening to Schafer, I cannot help thinking of the way in which celebrated accounts of the cycle by bass-baritone voices (Hotter, Fischer-Dieskau) present an acoustic image of Everyman in extremis. Like her female predecessors -- including Fassbaender, Ludwig, and Stutzmann -- Schafer skillfully employs the resources of her voice to convey not so much the voice of Everyman as that of No One. Hers is a chronicle of someone already moribund, already en route to becoming absent. (And, unlike Fassbaender and Ludwig, she has the advantage of recording the cycle while still in full possession of her vocal skills.) Schneider, by virtue of the pristine but radically unsentimental pacing of his accompaniment, is an ideal partner. I wouldn't want to be without Fischer-Dieskau's or Matthias Goerne's versions, but among female traversals only Nathalie Stutzmann's powerfully moving version, in contralto register, offer a comparably gripping account of this essential work.

Like many here, I have heard dozens of recordings of this otherworldly masterpiece, and none has moved me and terrified me and left me awe-struck as much as this one.

I agree with virtually everything Gallagher and the 2 Davids said in detail, so I won't repeat it.

I will just note a couple of points of agreement: it IS like the work is being sung by No One, rather than your literal male DFD narrator - the voice of infinity and fate.

And I also think that the pianist is spectacular, a perfect match for C.S.

-- I couldn't live without Winterreise. I have at least 2 dozen recordings of it. I think the most beautiful performances on disc (UNTIL NOW, FINALLY) are all by men: Matthias Goerne (with Johnson, not with Brendel - the Brendel has applause IMMEDIATELY before and IMMEDIATELY after, so distracting and almost offensive, though the performance is stunning, if it didn't have applause it would be my top choice), Peter Pears, Jon Vickers... I have female versions of this by Hunter-Bradley, Ludwig, Baird, Stutzmann, and partial performances by Lehmann and Gerhardt -- (and, now, Schaefer)... I don't know if I'd go so far as to say Christine Schaefer's is the only Winterreise I will ever need, but it is really very close, quite near. It's ice cold and scorching hot. It's so isolated and desolate, clean and pure. The piano playing (by Eric Schneider - who appears on Goerne's definitive Schubert Die Schoene Muellerin) is extraordinary, outstanding. The singing, I don't know, there's something magical to her voice, wondrous. It's like time itself singing, the voice of infinity. Stark, harrowing. I felt as if my heart stopped. This is really a stunning stunning performance in terms of singer, pianist, recording, and presentation. I love this disc, and I will live with it, lovingly, incredibly grateful, for quite some time... Side note, another "finally," FINALLY a perfect recital disc for Christine Schafer. She appears on some amazing operas/cantatas, but I've never never been completely satisfied with her "solo" efforts - maybe because I haven't been ultimately satisfied with her accompaniment (I'm not wild and crazy for Irwin Cage on either of their discs (though both are quite lovely and tender and really really good) or Graham Johnson on either of their discs (though both are, again, quite good)) - Eric Schneider is the best voice-recital pianist, I hope their partnership (and also his partnership with Goerne) lasts and lasts!

Quite an odd performance, this is. I have admired Christine Schäfer's work with Harnoncourt, so this was a dissappointment. Sopranos certainly have their work cut out for them attempting this, and unfortunately she does not rise to the challenge. In fact, it is hurried, and ill-phrased. The piano is ponderous. For a performance by a female, you are best served by Fassbinder.

What I love about this disc is that it is so simple, just a piano and soprano. The music is very dramatic and sometimes depressing, but justifiably so given the subject matter. I got this on a download for half price, but I would gladly pay full price for this recording. If you are looking for complex sound apply elsewhere, otherwise this will not be a let down...and keep me updated!