The great baritone Roderick Williams recorded Schubert's Die Winterreise, D. 911, once before, in English, but this 2021 version, coming as the capstone to a set of Schubert song cycles, marks a major statement in his career, appearing in the singer's mid-50s. It's quite different from the earlier version, which was made with an eye toward presentation to students and has a more extrovert tinge. Here, Williams is restrained and ultimately deeply reflective. The reading may not grab the listener's attention, but it is of the ...
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The great baritone Roderick Williams recorded Schubert's Die Winterreise, D. 911, once before, in English, but this 2021 version, coming as the capstone to a set of Schubert song cycles, marks a major statement in his career, appearing in the singer's mid-50s. It's quite different from the earlier version, which was made with an eye toward presentation to students and has a more extrovert tinge. Here, Williams is restrained and ultimately deeply reflective. The reading may not grab the listener's attention, but it is of the type that rewards close listening. Williams lets Schubert's music and Wilhelm Müller's texts speak for themselves, with telling effect; his winter wanderer, as it were, keeps walking. He doesn't stop to linger on individual ideas, but they have cumulative power. Even in some of the more intense songs, like Auf dem Flusse, Williams is quite restrained, with the emphasis on the self-examination inherent in the text rather than on the explosion of despair halfway through. Mut becomes...
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