Schubert himself recognised that his song-cycle Die Winterreise was special, urging a friend, Josef von Spaun, ‘Come to Schober’s today. I shall sing you a cycle of songs and I am curious to know what you will all say to them. They have taken more out of me than was ever the case with my other songs.’ How right he was, for when sensitively recreated, they are moving in a very special way. They have been much recorded, but this new version by Florian Boesch and Malcolm Martineau is inspired and quite unforgettable. It has total spontaneity, a superbly balanced, totally natural recording, with the pianist making a perfect partnership with the singer.

The very first song, ‘Die Nacht’, arrests the attention as it should, and one is utterly melted by the lovely ‘Der Lindenbaum’, while the pianist, Malcolm Martineau, is equally compelling as he begins ‘Wasserflut’ with great delicacy, matched by Boesch. Similarly, the gently pointed opening of ‘Auf dem Flusse’ is tellingly contrasted with the energy of ‘Rückblick’. The weariness of ‘Rast’ is no less hauntingly conveyed, while ‘Frühlingstraum’ opens brightly and then slips imperceptibly into sad nostalgia, which persists in ‘Einsamkeit’ and makes the contrasts of ‘Die Post’ and ‘Die Krähe’ even more effective.

What is remarkable in a performance
of this calibre is that the sadness which permeates nearly all these songs (and particularly ‘Das Wirtshaus’, with its anticipation of death) is always affecting, yet never depressing for the listener, while ‘Mut!’ lifts the spirits before the final gentle resignation of ‘Die Nebensonnen’ makes way for the extraordinary, unpredictable postlude, ‘Der Leiermann’. The poetic imagery is magically sung, and Martineau perfectly captures the drone of the hurdy-gurdy, played here on a restrained half-tone to end a performance to which I shall return again and again. I cannot recommend this CD too highly.