Composer: Hans Zender
Performer: Julian Prégardien
Orchestra: Deutsche Radio Philharmonie
Conductor: Robert Reimer
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Alpha
Catalogue: ALPHA425
Release: 2018
Size: 801 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Schuberts Winterreise
01. Gute Nacht
02. Die Wetterfahne
03. Gefrorne Tränen
04. Erstarrung
05. Der Lindenbaum
06. Wasserflut
07. Auf dem Flusse
08. Rückblick
09. Irrlicht
10. Rast
11. Frühlingstraum
12. Einsamkeit
13. Die Post
14. Der Greise Kopf
15. Die Krähe
16. Letzte Hoffnung
17. Im Dorfe
18. Der Stürmische Morgen
19. Täuschung
20. Der Wegweiser
21. Das Wirtshaus
22. Mut
23. Die Nebensonnen
24. Der Leiermann
The tenor Julian Prégardien joins Alpha for several recording projects that will showcase every facet of his talent, notably lieder and oratorio. His first album on the label is devoted to one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of music, Winterreise, but in a version with orchestra composed by Hans Zender in 1993. He scored the work for orchestral forces very different from the ensembles used in the nineteenth century (including, for example, a soprano saxophone, an accordion, a harmonica, a wind machine, a guitar and a very large percussion section).
Hans Zender describes his work as a ‘creative transformation’: ‘My own reading of Winterreise does not seek a new expressive interpretation, but systematically takes advantage of the freedoms that performers normally allow themselves in an intuitive way: slowing down or accelerating the tempo, transposition into different keys, emphasising and nuancing colours.’
Following a staged production of this version of the work, Christian Merlin wrote in Le Figaro in 2018: ‘A spellbinding Winterreise… The tenor Julian Prégardien, at once an exceptional singer and a committed actor, gives an incendiary performance combining vocal expressiveness, loving attention to the words and theatrical presence with sensitivity and intelligence in equal measure.’