Written in 1828, in the last months of the young Schubert's life, Winterreise ("Winter's Journey"), has come to be considered the single greatest piece of music ever written for the male solo voice. Deceptively Brief - the twenty-four short poems are performed uninterrupted in 70 minutes - it nonetheless has an emotional depth and power that no music of its kind has ever equaled.

Zusatztext 41786683 Informationen zum Autor IAN BOSTRIDGE is universally recognized as one of the greatest Lieder interpreters of our era. In addition to his numerous award-winning recordings of opera and song, he was the original Caliban in Thomas Adès's The Tempest, and he played Gustav von Aschenbach in English National Opera's landmark 2007 production of Death in Venice . A D. Phil of Oxford University for his work on the significance of witchcraft in English public life from 1650 to 1750, he lives in London with his wife, the writer and critic Lucasta Miller, and their two children. Klappentext An exploration of the world's most famous and challenging song cycle, Schubert's Winter Journey (Winterreise), by a leading interpreter of the work, who teases out the themes-literary, historical, psychological-that weave through the twenty-four songs that make up this legendary masterpiece.Completed in the last months of the young Schubert's life, Winterreise has come to be considered the single greatest piece of music in the history of Lieder. Deceptively laconic-these twenty-four short poems set to music for voice and piano are performed uninterrupted in little more than an hour-it nonetheless has an emotional depth and power that no music of its kind has ever equaled. A young man, rejected by his beloved, leaves the house where he has been living and walks out into snow and darkness. As he wanders away from the village and into the empty countryside, he experiences a cascade of emotions-loss, grief, anger, and acute loneliness, shot through with only fleeting moments of hope-until the landscape he inhabits becomes one of alienation and despair. Originally intended to be sung to an intimate gathering, performances of Winterreise now pack the greatest concert halls around the world. Drawing equally on his vast experience performing this work (he has sung it more than one hundred times), on his musical knowledge, and on his training as a scholar, Bostridge teases out the enigmas and subtle meanings of each of the twenty-four lyrics to explore for us the world Schubert inhabited, his biography and psychological makeup, the historical and political pressures within which he became one of the world's greatest composers, and the continuing resonances and affinities that our ears still detect today, making Schubert's wanderer our mirror. Zusammenfassung An exploration of the world's most famous and challenging song cycle! Schubert's Winter Journey ( Winterreise )! by a leading interpreter of the work! who teases out the themesliterary! historical! psychologicalthat weave through the twenty-four songs that make up this legendary masterpiece. Completed in the last months of the young Schubert's life! Winterreise has come to be considered the single greatest piece of music in the history of Lieder. Deceptively laconicthese twenty-four short poems set to music for voice and piano are performed uninterrupted in little more than an hourit nonetheless has an emotional depth and power that no music of its kind has ever equaled. A young man! rejected by his beloved! leaves the house where he has been living and walks out into snow and darkness. As he wanders away from the village and into the empty countryside! he experiences a cascade of emotionsloss! grief! anger! and acute loneliness! shot through with only fleeting moments of hopeuntil the landscape he inhabits becomes one of alienation and despair. Originally intended to be sung to an intimate gathering! performances of Winterreise now pack the greatest concert halls around the world. Drawing equally on his vast experience performing this work (he has sung it more than one hundred times)! on his musical knowledge! and on his training as a scholar! Bostridge teases out the enigmas and subtle meanings of each of the twenty-four lyrics to explore for us the world Schu...

International Praise for Schubert's Winter Journey

“Enthralling. . . . With Schubert’s Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession, Ian Bostridge proves to be one of the most impressive writers among musical performers, as erudite and vivid as he is entertaining. . . . Ian Bostridge’s book is brilliant and unique. After reading it, we may listen differently to this supreme work of art, one that, despite being tainted by death, makes life worth living.” —Alfred Brendel, The New York Review of Books

“Exquisite. . . . The tenor and, it transpires, fine writer Ian Bostridge is a great guide to the mysterious winter-scape and supreme symbiosis of word and music, the marrying and tussling of piano and vocal lines, which Schubert took to hitherto unimaginable musical and emotional planes. Bostridge's engaging mélange of memoir, cultural history, close musical reading, glimpses of biography and wide-reaching examples of the ripple effect of Winterreise's influence on writers, composers, historians, and thinkers ever since – including Beckett, Benjamin Britten, Djuna Barnes, Paul Auster, Thomas Mann, and Slavoj Žižek – makes a strong case for Winterreise being as deserving of a place in our common experience ‘as the poetry of Shakespeare and Dante, the paintings of Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso, the novels of the Brontë sisters or Marcel Proust.’” —Rebecca K. Morrison, *The Independent (UK)

*“Tantalizing. . . . Bostridge’s language is often youthful and hip. . . . In this hyper-intensive book, the great surprise comes near the end, with his concise explanation of the inscrutable poem “Die Nebensonnen.” It’s not to be spoiled here, but it’s Bostridge’s final triumph. . . It’s easy to imagine stunned young acolytes carrying [Schubert’s Winter Journey] around the way they used to carry around Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther.” —William R. Braun, *Opera News
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"Ian Bostridge, one of Britain’s foremost tenors, has performed “Winterreise” more than 100 times. He knows every last nuance of the work and has given it a great deal of thought. His beautifully produced book offers many new insights that will inform the enjoyment of both old admirers and newcomers to the music. . . . Mr Bostridge is a good storyteller and keeps the reader in constant suspense. . . . Mr Bostridge has an acute understanding of the historical context of the time and how it may have influenced Schubert’s reading of the poems." —The Economist

“Illuminating.”—The New Yorker

"Wouldn't it be great if we nonexpert folks could get experts to give us guided tours of great music in humane, rather than technical, terms? That is what we have in Schubert's Winter Journey by Ian Bostridge. He is a well-known tenor/writer, and Franz Schubert's Winterreise, or Winter Journey (composed 1827-1828) is among his favorite works. After you read this book, it might become one of yours, too." —John Timpane, The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Much of Bostridge’s exploration comes from a performer’s perspective: cogent explanations of the niceties of musical notation and interpretation, close readings of the text. . . . But the book also approaches from myriad scholarly and historical angles, vectors Bostridge—who trained as a historian—chooses with judicious flair. . . . Bostridge’s curiosity enriches the book and the music." —Matthew Guerrieri, *The Boston Globe
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"*Schubert’s W…