Winterreise [Import]

Schubert (Artist), Price (Artist), Dewey (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 27, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Forlane
• ASIN: B0000038F6
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,691,059 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Good Night

2. The Weather Cock

3. Frozen Tears

4. Chill Torpor

5. The Linden Tree

6. Floodwater

7. On the river

8. Looking Back

9. Will-o'-the-wisp

10. Rest

11. Dream of spring

12. Loneliness

13. The Post

14. The Grey Head

15. The Crow

16. Last Hope

17. In the village

18. The Stormy Morning

19. Illusion

20. The Sign Post

See all 24 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Difficult to find - but well worth the effort., January 18, 2007

By 

E. J. Powell "e j powell" (wales) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Winterreise (Audio CD)

This recording has been in and out of the catalogue like a yo-yo. It is hard to track down a copy, but I recommend that you try, for I have found the effort worthwhile and more than rewarded by the sheer quality of the interpretation as well as the sound recording.

Winterreise was once a rare experience in the concert hall - it makes great deamnds upon performers and audience alike. Done well it is an uncomfortable experience - the poetry and the music are profound but unrelenting and certainly heart-breaking. For the performer to sustain the mood of bleak desparation, on this winter's journey into oblivion, is something like climbing the Himalayas.

Some interpreters have made a meal of it - Vickers performed it like a mini-Trsitan. Fassbaender like a nervous breakdown. Bostridge like a descent into madness. How does Dame Margaret Price fare?

If you believe the reviewers, not very well. It was recorded late in her career. There were complaints about the state of her voice, her sense of pitch and so on. I'm sorry I took notice of the reviewers and delayed so long in making up my own mind. I think her performance is a wonderful achievement, and a high point in a career littered with high points.

Yes, the voice is a little uncertain. Yes, pitch is a little wobbly. But only a little: and on the posiive side, she brings a lifetime's interpretative experience and insight to these works. Most noticeably: she invests these songs with great tonal beauty, which is almost a dirty word in the recent performing tradition of Winterreise.

BUT ABOVE ALL: this set is to be valued for making the songs sound like Schubert. Not Wagner (Vickers), not Berg (Fassbinder), not Bostridge (bostridge!). For this, I am deeply grateful.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars schubert winterreise Margaret Price, December 30, 2009

By 

I. R. Munday (Wales U.K) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Winterreise (Audio CD)

Margaret Price is something of an enigma. Undoubtedly she was gifted with the most beautiful lyric soprano voice and left a legacy of some wonderful recordings, but seemed to have problems with conductors, producers, choices... her own emotional baggage?
She retired from the world comparatively early (shortly after this recording in fact - was this a contributing factor?). I saw her give a talk this year (2009): It was hauntingly sad, and her view of her career seemed less than celebratory and almost painfully negative.
Yet hearing her talk reawakened an interest in her recordings and I have found some absolute gems (Solti's Otello and Kleiber's Tristan) but sadly not this.
I saw her a few times in real life, in a Handel work at the RFH, where she went badly flat, and Norma at Covent Garden where she was clearly out of her depth. Both these criticisms are what I feel about this recording. Though Schubert was supposed to be one her specialities I find this Winterreise really painful. The voice is unfocussed and the pitch seems constantly off; it is almost as if her voice and the piano were tuned at a demi-semi-tone out. As for putting the piece over I feel she over-emotes so it's all over annunciation and forced emphasis and little interiority. It is only in the quieter songs like Der Wegweiser and Der Leiermann that she almost succeeds.
I really cannot recommend this at all. If you want and aging, female singer performing this work I recommend Christ Ludwig whom I saw perform it, and who gave an interpretation of true religiosity, one that communicates into her recording. I am glad Ludwig remains supreme in my affections but sad to have to write this (I just hope Dame Margaret never reads it). Buy her DVD of Aida there she is fabulous! I.M