5 Stars: An excellent new version of a Schubert masterpiece, including an unusual fortepiano

SCHUBERT Winterreise • Jakob Bloch Jespersen (bbar); Sharon Prushansky (fp) • OUR 8.226928 (68:42)
Winterreise is a work that is at the very top end of music that needs to be heard with rapt attention. A great rendition should leave the listener awed and bewildered. I heard a live performance a couple of seasons ago with the magnificent baritone Mark Padmore with Mitsuko Uchida at the piano, an hour plus of music making during which one could have heard a pin drop, so mesmerized was the audience. Uchida had tears streaming down her cheeks at the conclusion of the rendition. This superbly communicative new recording meets that very high standard, with a couple of nice bonuses as well. Danish bass-baritone Jakob Bloch Jespersen has a chestnut colored voice that he uses with sensitive attention to the meaning of the words he sings, without ever veering into emotional exaggeration. Admittedly, other singers dig a bit deeper into the poetry, notably the legendary Fischer-Dieskau (he recorded the music seven times). Of more recent recordings, I am especially fond of Matthias Goerne’s rendition, with Christoph Eschenbach at the piano. Nevertheless, there is a certain purity to Jespersen’s singing that draws the listener to the core of the work. Most devoted Fanfare readers will own multiple versions of beloved masterpieces, and I do not hesitate in recommending adding this Winterreise to any select library.
Now about those bonuses. The chief one is the contribution of Sharon Prushansky, who plays a Robert Brown instrument built in 2015, after a Jakob Bertsche keyboard built sometime in the second decade of the nineteenth century. This is no ordinary fortepiano; it employs six pedals, including the customary una corde, which is built into all modern pianos as well. This is the pedal that shifts the hammers so that only one string is struck, allowing for a more delicate tonality, an effect Prushansky summons frequently in this performance, in accordance with Schubert’s pianissimo markings. But then there is the “double moderator” pedal, which softens the tone even more, achieving a properly ghostly effect in Das Wirtshaus, depicting a graveyard visit, and again in the haunting final song, Der Leiermann. The “bassoon stop” is even more striking, creating a metallic voice that almost sounds electronic. Prushansky uses this pedal in the agitated passages in the songs Der Lindenbaum and Frülingstraum. She does not use the “Turkish music” pedal, however, although the instrument does offer that option. There is no mention in the notes that Schubert himself knew of this instrument, but the vintage lines up, as Bertsche was working in Vienna at the same time that Schubert lived there.
The other bonus is the recorded sound. Fanfare writers, as an unwritten rule, do not comment on sound quality in reviews unless there is negative quality that effects the listener’s enjoyment, or, as in this case, to comment on exceptional audio. The sound of Jespersen’s voice and Prushansky’s keyboard seem to inhabit just the right acoustical space, as if one were sitting ten to twenty feet back in a small recital hall, and the timbres are wonderfully lifelike. This a hallmark of every OUR recording I have auditioned, and it greatly enhances the listening experience. Peter Burwasser