Schubert

Winterreise Mark Padmore (tenor), Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano) Harmonia Mundi HMM 902264 69:16 mins The back cover of this CD claims that ‘this intense, distilled reading of Wilhelm Müller’s poetry resolutely turns its back on the traditions that usually hold sway in this area of the Romantic musical heritage’. I wonder which traditions the writer is thinking of – I can’t bring any to mind. The words suggest that this is a radically different interpretation from what we usually hear – the range of interpretations of this greatest and deepest of song-cycles is enormous. The main difference in this one is that Kristian Bezuidenhout plays a fortepiano, which does produce a striking effect sometimes, above all in the final song, where it sounds like the old player’s hurdy-gurdy, with eerie, disturbing effect. In some of the songs the fortepiano’s sound is a gain, in others I prefer the richer sounds of a pianoforte.

Certainly the fortepiano suits the voice of tenor Mark Padmore, here recording the work for the second time. His fairly reedy tone and his restraint in matters of volume go well with the instrument, and Kristian Bezuidenhout is a sympathetic accompanist, if a less individual one than some of the pianists we have become used to, such as Paul Lewis, Padmore’s previous partner (on Harmonia Mundi, again), or Helmut Deutsch or Malcolm Martineau. Padmore’s interpretation, too, I would say, is intense and perhaps unusually inward, very much a journey of the tormented soul rather than one through a bleak and unaccommodating landscape, but that, too, has become quite common among the 50 or so recordings I have reviewed. Michael Tanner PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★