In 1828, Franz Schubert, one of Vienna's most celebrated composers, wrote a cycle of songs called Winterreise, or Winter Journey, the lyrics of which are taken from a poem written by Wilhelm Müller. Ideally performed in one sitting, this 70-minute cycle has since become one of the world's most significant musical pieces for a male soloist. In Schubert's Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession, Ian Bostridge, an English tenor, takes readers through Winterreise, examining each of the 24 songs.
Bostridge himself has sung Winterreise for 30 years, and he believes what Schubert accomplished is as worthy of praise and study as works by Shakespeare and Dante. In his own time, Schubert enjoyed a renown not known to many composers; but when he first performed Winterreise at an intimate gathering of friends, the reception was middling. The piece marked a departure from Schubert's previous compositions, and he focused on it with a single-minded passion, convinced even his reluctant first audience would come to love it as his best work.
Bostridge dissects and explains each song in depth, providing detailed historical, biographical and cultural backgrounds through which readers may come to understand them better. He captures how, and in many instances why, Winterreise is a singular work that has a profound effect on audiences even today. Whether explaining what the music is designed to do, and its various effects, or recalling his own experiences performing it, Bostridge shows, in a book that is just as captivating, how psychologically, emotionally and physically thrilling the composition is. --Justus Joseph, bookseller at Elliott Bay Book Company