Franz Schubert: Winterreise, D.911

The song-cycle Winterreise, D.911, on poems by Wilhelm Müller, is the last such cycle written by the Viennese composer, Franz Schubert (1797-1828). In the opinion of the great lieder singer, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, “it is a compendium of all the works composed by Schubert during the last years of his life.” Winterreise shares the spirit of the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, and will be sung tonight with the profound, expressive quality brought to it by Nathalie Stutzmann and Inger Södergren, who for many years has been our guest artist’s regular accompanist.

Winterreise has a typically Romantic subject – the unrequited love of a man who has seen his lover leave him for ever, but the cycle does not tell a story as such. The twenty-four lieder express the intimate reflections and laments of the poet. With the art of Stutzmann’s voice, performance of this work in Torroella is sure to be powerfully moving.