For only the third time, BBC television will be broadcasting a complete performance of Schubert’s Winterreise. John Bridcut’s film, with the baritone Benjamin Appl (a former Gramophone Young Artist of the Year and BBC New Generation Artist) and pianist James Baillieu, will be shown on BBC Four on Sunday, February 27 at 8pm (and thereafter can be viewed on the BBC iPlayer. For music lovers in North America and Australasia, the film will be available on Marquee TV from February 28).

Filmed in and around the Julier Tower, a striking red tower built on the pass in the Swiss Alps, ‘Winter Journey: Schubert’s Winterreise’ offers a complete performance of the cycle interspersed with commentary, including a wonderful interview with the mezzo-soprano Brigitte Fassbaender who was among the first women to perform (and record) Winterreise.

Interestingly the three performances of Winterreise that the BBC will have shown are all related: in 1970, Peter Pears sang the cycle with Benjamin Britten at the piano; in the mid-1980s, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (for whom Britten wrote a number of works, including the baritone part in the War Requiem) was joined by Alfred Brendel. And now Fischer-Dieskau’s last pupil, Appl steps up to form an illustrious trio.

Benjamin Appl and James Baillieu talked to James Jolly for our February issue. Read the feature here.

‘Winter Journey’ will be broadcast on BBC Four at 8pm on Sunday, February 27, after which it can be viewed on iPlayer