Schubert: Winterreise (Franz Schubert - Wilhelm Muller)

Album review

According to Fanfare, the magazine for serious collectors, "if you want a tenor Winterreise, seek no further" than this 1990 recording by tenor Zeger Vandersteene and pianist Levnete Kende. Maybe: if you sought further, you might find recordings of Winterreise by tenors Ian Bostridge or Jon Vickers or especially Peter Schreier, all of which are among the most affecting, terrifying, and excruciating recordings of the work ever made. While Vandersteene is a fine tenor with a capable technique and a warm voice, his Winterreise is not in that exalted company. The depths of pain, the abyss of loneliness, the horror of madness -- these qualities are only hinted at in Vandersteene's interpretation. This is not to say that Vandersteene's performance lacks merit: his lyrical phrasing and graceful glissando accomplish wonderful things in the less intense and harrowing songs of the cycle. But when the big moments come and especially when the cycle reaches its closing songs, Vandersteene is not quite up to the challenge. Aided and abetted by superb pianist and sensitive accompanist Kende, Vandersteene's Winterreise is certainly worth listening to if you love the work and have to hear every performance of it ever recorded. But if you want a single tenor Winterreise, try Peter Schreier's 1985 recording with Sviatoslav Richter on Philips. It'll thrill you. It'll kill you. Northern Flowers' recording is clean and direct, but not particularly present.
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