Simply sublime ~ the only Winterreise you'll ever need
Steven Guy | Croydon, South Australia | 10/06/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Christoph Prégardien's Winterreise is the one to own. He sings with great feeling - all the emotions are here - sadness, love, anger, despair, resignation, regret, bitterness, hope and hopelessness. Prégardien uses the different registers of his voice with great skill and he blends head voice, falsetto and chest voices with great skill, but he allows the different colours to come out and bring great expressiveness to the music.
Andreas Staier is an excellent fortepianist and he brings great skill and wisdom to his performance. The instrument used, like Christoph Prégardien's voice, has a great range of colour and expressiveness.
This is a nearly perfect recording. It is one of the most perfect recordings of music on CD I have ever heard and it is a treasured part of my collection.
I recommend this disc to all."
The why of the fortepiano
ruizaguilar | 04/11/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Composers like Mozart, Haydn or Schubert were not having in mind a 20th century Steinway when they wrote their pieces. It is true that the modern piano is far more expressive than a fortepiano, but the gain is a selfish one, for it suffices to hear Mozart's Piano Concertos in modern and period instruments to realize that the work loses as a whole. What is true for Mozart is no less true for Schubert, and period instruments performances render more delicately the composer's orginal message. This however does not justify bad playing, and this performance is impeccable."
A marvelous interpretation!
Steven Guy | 05/16/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"My daughter made me a gift of this recording and all I can say is: What a wonderful, marvelous interpretation and recording! What a glorious singer! What a perfect pianist! This deserves more than 5 stars! Highly reccomended!"