Schubert: Winterreise ~ Quasthoff

Thomas Quasthoff (Artist), Franz Schubert (Composer), Charles Spencer (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Charles Spencer
• Composer: Franz Schubert
• Audio CD (October 13, 1998)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony Classics / RCA
• ASIN: B00000DFKL
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #35,564 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificient, November 21, 1999

By 

Ivan Pataki (France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Schubert: Winterreise ~ Quasthoff (Audio CD)

I'd rather say that the interpretation of Thomas Quasthoff is a radically different one from that of Fischer-Dieskau. What's new in this recording is a kind of distance or objectivity in regard of these lieder, it's not a romantic version and that's what makes of it an even more tragic one. The phrases of Quasthoff accompanied marvellously by Spencer make us feel as we took part really in this freezing journey. I've got the chance to listen to a concert diffused by ZDF (Germany), where Quasthoff was accompanied by Maria Joao Pires. If somebody could tell me how to get in possession of this beautiful recording, I'd be a happy man, 'cause on this occasion I discovered my favourite baryton singer. To listen as well: Matthew-passion with H. Rilling by Hannsler Verlag

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The essence of bass-baritone sound, June 19, 2001

By 

Stephen T. Andrews (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Schubert: Winterreise ~ Quasthoff (Audio CD)

I own five copies of Winterreise - Prey, Fischer-Dieskau, Goerne, and Hampson in addition to this one. All the rest take a very baritonal approach - Goerne seems to want to be a tenor most of the time. Quasthoff has a completely different sound; rich in quality throughout the registers. Note that he is also singing the standard Peters "Low Voice" keys.

Emotionally, this is also very satisfying. The craziness is not on the surface as with Hampson or (to some extent) Prey. In the last song, Leiermann, this a little disconcerting - there one almost expects the weirdness. But elsewhere, the approach is to grasp the musical core first, and then find the expressiveness in the words, not to tell an overall existential story. But each song is done very powerfully.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As good as Fischer-Dieskau, but with his own slant on it, March 2, 2000

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Schubert: Winterreise ~ Quasthoff (Audio CD)

I have loved the 1960s recording by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau since it first came out and have not really found any recording since then that gave me the emotional experience that DFD's did. But now I have. And his luscious dark voice qua voice is more beautiful than DFD's. Quasthoff takes a rather more objective stance; he's the narrator more than the subject of the cycle, and that's valid. By the time we get to "Der Leiermann" one is wrung out by the tragedy imparted.