Episode 135. A Woman’s Winterreise

Episode 135. A Woman’s Winterreise

Today in honor of Women’s History Month and the people of Ukraine, I present a compendium of eight different Liedersängerinnen singing Franz Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise, set to poems by Wilhelm Müller. When I am in despair, I turn to Schubert, who, even in such a bleak piece as Winterreise, offers incomparable insight and empathy into our shared humanity. Though it is often held that this is a cycle that should sung exclusively by men, these eight women put the lie to that faulty premise. Featured singers are Lois Marshall, Brigitte Fassbaender, Lotte Lehmann, Elena Gerhardt, Christa Ludwig, Margaret Price, Mitsuko Shirai, and Alice Coote. Pianists are Paul Ulanowsky, Erik Werba, James Levine, Hartmut Höll, Julius Drake, Coenraad Bos, Aribert Reimann, Wolfram Rieger, Anton Kuerti, and Thomas Dewey. This is an episode that I have been planning for some time, and with so many people forced to take precarious and life-threatening winter journeys, there was no time like the present than to share this music, and these singers, with you. WARNING: This is at least a six-hankie episode!

RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE

All but the final song are from Franz Schubert’s Winterreise, D.911, set to texts by Wilhelm Müller

I. Gute Nacht. Brigitte Fassbaender, Aribert Reimann [1988]

II. Die Wetterfahne. Mitsuko Shirai, Hartmut Höll [1991]

III. Gefror’ne Tränen. Christa Ludwig, Erik Werba [live Milano 15.X.85]

IV. Erstarrung. Lois Marshall, Anton Kuerti [Toronto 11.76]

V. Der Lindenbaum. Elena Gerhardt, Coenraad V. Bos [1927]

VI. Wasserflut. Alice Coote, Julius Drake [live London 01.2012]

VII. Auf dem Flusse. Margaret Price, Thomas Dewey [1997]

VIII. Rückblick. Brigitte Fassbaender, Wolfram Rieger [soundtrack to 1994 Peter Weigl film]

IX. Irrlicht. Christa Ludwig, James Levine [1988]

X. Rast. Lois Marshall, Anton Kuerti [live Toronto 11.76]

XI. Frühlingstraum. Lotte Lehmann, Paul Ulanowsky [1941]

XII. Einsamkeit. Brigitte Fassbaender, Aribert Reimann [1988]

XIII. Die Post. Mitsuko Shirai, Hartmut Höll [1991]

XIV. Der greise Kopf. Alice Coote, Julius Drake [live London 01.2012]

XV. Die Krähe. Elena Gerhardt, Coenraad V. Bos [1927]

XVI. Letzte Hoffnung. Margaret Price, Thomas Dewey [1997]

XVII. Im Dorfe. Lotte Lehmann, Paul Ulanowsky [1940]

XVIII. Der stürmische Morgen. Alice Coote, Julius Drake [live London 01.2012]

XIX. Täuschung. Margaret Price, Thomas Dewey [1997]

XX. Der Wegweiser. Christa Ludwig, Erik Werba [live Milano 15.X.85]

XXI. Das Wirtshaus. Lois Marshall, Anton Kuerti [live Toronto 11.76]

XXII. Mut. Lotte Lehmann, Paul Ulanowsky [1940]

XXIII. Die Nebensonnen. Mitsuko Shirai, Hartmut Höll [1991]

XXIV. Der Leiermann. Elena Gerhardt, Coenraad V. Bos [1927]

Franz Schubert, Franz von Schober: An die Musik, D. 547. Lotte Lehmann, Paul Ulanowsky [1941 radio performance]