Franz SCHUBERT
Winterreise
Peter Pears (tenor)
Benjamin Britten (piano)
Decca 466 382-2
[70.07]
Crotchet
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It is good to have this classic 1963 account of Winterreise back in
the catalogue. Graham Johnson, who has given many performances of it with
some of the greatest Lieder singers, epitomises it as 'fresh, daring and
unique'.
Although Peter Pears' German is not flawless, and his voice itself is not
everybody's favourite, the intelligence and thought which have gone into
his interpretation is evident throughout. Having been a little
underwhelmed very recently by Benjamin Britten's
conducting of Purcell and Bach
[Decca
466 819-2], there is happily no disappointment with his
piano playing, with its continual insights expressed in a unique command
of touch and colour.
The recording was made in Kingsway Hall by the renowned Decca team of John
Culshaw and Kenneth Wilkinson and the 'super-digital' remastering is impeccable.
(The back of the insert booklet gives a misleading indication that their
equally famed Dichterliebe is included also.)
The Müller poems are given complete, with English translations by William
Mann. An indispensable acquisition.
Reviewer
Peter Grahame Woolf
