I much admired this team's Winterreise when it appeared on CD (CD50-8008/9, 9/85). For several reasons I am less enamoured of this issue. In the first place, Haefliger's voice is now beginning to sound its age, the toone consistently dry and grey. While, in its slighter fresher form, it was suitable for the resignation and despair of the earlier cycle, here—particularly in the Heine settings—the tone isn't always up to the large concept of songs such as ''Der Atlas'' and ''Der Doppelganger'', nor quite sensuous enough for ''Standchen'' and ''Fischermadchen''. The Rellstab songs, less demanding, fare more successfully, and throughout there remains the tenor's fastidious style and unexaggerated interpretations to admire. Both his rivals, listed above, employ a much more interventionist approach, with romantic accretions of rubato and consonantal attack; Haefliger's comparative restraint may appeal to those who like a straighter reading. But they will have to contend with a recording that adds too much reverberation to the voice, and the unfamiliar sound of Dahler's forte-piano. I enjoy its sweet timbre and small-scale sound, quite another thing from the sophisticated approach of Brendel (Philips).
My preference is for Schreier (DG), such a bold yet unvarnished protagonist, giving the cycle a unity it doesn't really aspire to. Of the three Fischer-Dieskau versions, the first (available as part of a three-record HMV set, SLS840, 2/76) is probably the most successful, but the DG (with Gerald Moore) on CD, is almost as recommendable. On LP, don't forget Hotter's memorable performance now available on a Conifer import coupled with his equally important Winterreise (References 2C 151 01274/5—not submitted for review). I think these all have more to say about the music than the correct but too pale Haefliger.'