Five stars: Schubert’s song cycle in an exceptional performance by two great musicians.

SCHUBERT Winterreise  Jakob Bloch Jespersen (bass-baritone); Sharon Prushansky (fp)  OUR Recordings 8.226928 (68:42  German only)

Jesperson’s bass-baritone voice, along with Pruhansky’s superb fortepiano make for one of the most rewarding Winterreises that I’ve heard in some time. In this current issue Ken Meltzer has a fascinating interview with the pair. The booklet matches the high quality of the performances. It includes a lengthy, insightful essay by the performers, all of the German texts and a series of photos by Tove Kurtzweil. The booklet is headed by a quote from song number 20, Der Wegweiser: “I must travel a road from which no one has ever returned . . .”
A friend of Schubert’s, Joseph von Spaun, wrote about the first performance of Winterreise in 1827 by the composer. “I will sing you a cycle of gruesome songs. I am anxious to know what you will say about them. They have affected me more than ever has been the case with any of my other songs.” So Schubert sang the entire Winterreise through to us in a voice full of emotion. We were utterly dumbfounded by the mournful, gloomy tone of these songs, “I like these songs more than all the rest, and you will come to like them as well”. At age 31, Schubert was correcting the proofs for Winterreise and suffering terribly from advanced syphilis (by most accounts) when he died the next year in 1828.
I must alert interested readers to The Cambridge Companion to Schubert’s Winterreise (edited by Marjorie Hirsch and Lisa Feurzeig, Cambridge University Press, 2021). This book is an essential new reference for this song cycle. In particular, Part V: Winterreise After 1827, which gave me some detailed information on its performance practice history from those involving Schubert to recent recordings. Johann Vogel, a long-time friend of Schubert sang new Schubert songs with the composer at the piano when the ink was barely dry and was very supportive. His Winterreise was given a full dramatic presentation. The book notes that he “took an actor’s liberties with the musical script: he might lapse into speech or use falsetto, alter notes and rhythms, adjust dynamics, or add embellishments, all in order to intensify the theatrical impact of his performance. The practice was by no means unusual at the time, even if it would soon fall out of favor.” Still, song performances from Schubert’s time to this day must balance Vogel’s kind of dramatic enactments against lyrical narration using just the music and text to describe people and their emotions.
Jespersen and Prushansky have made a complete live 74 minute performance from 2018 available on YouTube (search for Winterreise Jespersen). I believe it is clear that this duo, with perfect ensemble and a beautiful unity of expression, falls solidly into the lyrical narration mold. Jespersen does use facial expressions and some emphatic hand gestures, but always in support of the music and never distracting from its message. Their interview describes the differences between the early performance and the current recording, notably “our tempi seem to have become less extreme over time: the fast songs are now a little more moderate, and some of the slow ones are more flowing.”
It is hard for someone who was brought up on Fischer-Dieskau recordings of Schubert not to make comparisons. Over and over I thought I could be listening to one of the many Fischer-Dieskau performances. My wife, a life-time voice teacher, described the similarities that I was hearing as being their use of dynamics and attention to the detail of the words, along with superior German diction. Both singers also have similar dramatic delivery of phrases. I actually like Jespersen’s deeper, darker voice for these very dark songs. I had to pull out my old copy of Fischer-Dieskau and Jorg Demus’s 1966 recording to hear she was right on the money. Jespersen himself acknowledges that Fischer-Dieskau’s “influence on our perception of lieder is enormous, even today.”
The fortepiano used is a remarkable instrument – a modern copy by Robert Brown (2015) of an instrument by Jakob Bertsche from around 1815. This six octave fortepiano has six pedals that can be used to make considerable differences in the sound. Prushansky is so in touch with the texts of the songs that her well-chosen sounds not only support the voice but significantly add to the musical presentation. Schubert’s keyboard writing here sets, maintains and varies each scene remarkably. The use of a fortepiano means a sound that the composer was very familiar with and one that no doubt had a great influence on the composition.
The recorded sound here is excellent. The booklet essays and cold, sparse pictures are superb additions to this great performance. This is a must-have release. James Harrington