La Monnaie, Brussels

20 June 2012

Gerald Finley (baritone)
Julius Drake (piano)

Franz Schubert: Winterreise, D.911

‘Strange old man, shall I go with you? Will you play your hurdy-gurdy to my songs?’ This is Wilhelm Müller’s closing question in Winterreise. Franz Schubert paints a bare and desolate landscape for this poem, in which all that can be heard is the obstinate bourdon of the hurdy-gurdy. In the course of twenty-four songs, the poet and composer lead their audience through a wintry landscape. Their journey is a quest, a test of self-knowledge and an emotional chastening against the snowy backdrop of a bleak bourgeois society. Winterreise is without doubt one of the most insistent and clever song cycles ever composed. Julius Drake and Gerald Finley are the perfect musicians to give shape to the wide range of tonal colours and psychological nuances in this wonderful cycle.