Archive for Winterreise

Winterreise

Posted in Music with tags , , , on December 21, 2013 by telescoper

I spent this morning doing the crosswords as usual and then had a decidedly wintry journey to the shops and then to campus. It’s not snowing, but cold and windy and pouring with rain. All of which convinced me that it would be appropriate to post something from the recording of Schubert‘s  Winterreise made by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears in the year of my birth, 1963. Looking on Youtube, though, I found that some wonderful person has posted the entire song cycle, so here it is.

If you haven’t got time to listen to the whole thing then here are the timings of the various songs together with their catalogue numbers.
0:00–5:46 Gute Nacht (« Fremd bin ich eingezogen »…) D.911-1
5:47–7:47 Die Wetterfahne (« Der Wind spielt mit der Wetterfahne ») D. 911-2
7:48–10:00 Gefrorene Tränen (« Gefrorne Tropfen fallen ») D. 911-3
10:01–13:10 Erstarrung (« Ich such im Schnee vergebens ») D. 911-4
13:11–18:18 Der Lindenbaum (« Am Brunnen vor dem Tore ») D. 911-5
18:19–22:06 Wasserflut (« Manche Trän aus meinen Augen ») D. 911-6
22:07–25:41 Auf dem Flusse (« Der du so lustig rauschtest ») D. 911-7
25:42–28:02 Rückblick (« Es brennt mir unter beiden Sohlen ») D. 911-8
28:03–30:20 Irrlicht (« In die tiefsten Felsengründe ») D. 911-9
30:21–33:38 Rast (« Nun merk ich erst, wie müd ich bin ») D. 911-10
33:39–38:17 Frühlingstraum (« Ich träumte von bunten Blumen ») D. 911-11
38:18–41:09 Einsamkeit (« Wie eine trübe Wolke ») D. 911-12
41:10–43:12 Die Post (« Von der Straße her ein Posthorn klingt ») D. 911-13
43:13–46:02 Der greise Kopf (« Der Reif hatt einen weißen Schein ») D. 911-14
46:03–48:20 Die Krähe (« Eine Krähe war mit mir ») D. 911-15
48:21–50:22 Letzte Hoffnung (« Hie und da ist an den Bäumen ») D. 911-16
50:23–54:33 Im Dorfe (« Es bellen die Hunde, es rasseln die Ketten ») D. 911-17
54:34–55:31 Der stürmische Morgen (« Wie hat der Sturm zerrissen ») D. 911-,18
55:32–56:39 Täuschung (« Ein Licht tanzt freundlich vor mir her ») D. 911-19
56:40–1:00:29 Der Wegweiser (« Was vermeid ich denn die Wege ») D. 911-20
1:00:30–1:04:58 Das Wirtshaus (« Auf einen Totenacker ») D. 911-21
1:04:59–1:06:32 Mut (« Fliegt der Schnee mir ins Gesicht ») D. 911-22
1:06:33–1:09:31 Die Nebensonnen (« Drei Sonnen sah ich am Himmel stehn ») D. 911-23
1:09:32–1:12:49 Der Leiermann (« Drüben hinterm Dorfe ») D. 911-24

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Winterreise – Im Dorfe

Posted in Music with tags , , , , on January 23, 2013 by telescoper

It’s quite difficult to catch the snow as it’s falling with a simple camera like the one on my Blackberry, but here’s an attempt taken yesterday…

As pure as the driven slush...

As pure as the driven slush…

 

Anyway, today it’s cold again and it’s started snowing again and I’m going to be working late again finishing this wretched report,  so I thought I’d take a quick break to post some suitably wintry music. This is from the wonderful recording of Winterreise by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, complete with sheet music so you can sing along. The piano accompaniments for Schubert’s songs are so simple only a genius could have written them…

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Talking about Winterreise

Posted in Music with tags , , , on December 18, 2012 by telescoper

Well, here’s a find! A fascinating bit of film featuring Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears discussing and performing Franz Schubert‘s great song cycle, Winterreise.

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R.I.P Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

Posted in Music with tags , , , on May 19, 2012 by telescoper

I was very sad to hear, first thing this morning, of the death at the age of 86 of legendary singer Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. I can’t add anything to the host of tributes that have already appeared, except to say that his voice will always be very special to me because his recording of Schubert’s Winterreise (with Gerald Moore on piano) was the first I ever heard of any Schubert Lieder.

Instead of trying to write an appreciation which couldn’t possibly to justice to the man and his musical legacy, I’ll just post this video and let it speak for itself. This is Winterreise in its entirety, performed in 1979 by Fischer-Dieskau with Alfred Brendel on piano.

Rest in peace, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (1925-2012).

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Winterreise – Das Wirtshaus

Posted in Art, Music with tags , , , on February 4, 2012 by telescoper

It’s cold again, and it’s just  started snowing, so here’s some wintry music. I know that the recording of Winterreise by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears is by no means everyone’s favourite version, but I like it a lot. There’s the added bonus in this video of a glimpse of the art of Caspar David Friedrich.

P.S. Das Wirtshaus means “The Inn”, but in the poem by Müller that forms the lyric for this song, the inn is actually a graveyard…

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