Schubert: Winterreise, Op. 89, D. 911

Arttu Kataja, Pauliina Tukiainen

Released on 3/25/22 by Alba
Main artists: Arttu Kataja Pauliina Tukiainen
Genre: Chamber Music

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On a winter’s journey in Berlin

It is February 2021 and Berlin is unreally quiet. Snow covers the streets and muffles the sound of the few cars braving the streets of a metropolis in lockdown. Our recording location, the Staatsoper Unter der Linden, is in an equally unreal state: the hectic daily rhythm of the opera house is on hiatus, with only one opera in rehearsal, and for only one performance. And this single performance will be for an empty hall, with only cameras for audience. In the midst of this unusually quiet setting are a singer, a pianist, and a special work, Schubert’s Winterreise.

The dreamy atmosphere of the city and the theatre feels extraordinarily apt, and helps us focus and tune in to the liminal world of the song cycle, a world that has fascinated us both since beginning of our studies. Winterreise brings both the performer and the listener to the fundamental questions of humanity and existence. The human and social levels of the work remain pertinent and current. Schubert’s marvellous music absorbs and intoxicates, while at the same time, demands of its performers reflection on their own limits as a musician.

Online streaming services currently contain more than 300 recordings of Winterreise, begging the question: why add a new recording of this song cycle to such a comprehensive spectrum of performances? What does our interpretation of this Schubert monument have to offer? On reflection, we concluded that each personal interpretation of Winterreise is unique and legitimate. That is the strength of the masterpiece: it is ambiguous and rich enough to be reborn over and over again. Winterreise’s mysticism and metaphorical nature is transformed in the hands of the individual performers, necessarily as for the first time. We’ve both had our own journey so far, and on this record these journeys merge, forming a new and unique synthesis. On the way home from the first night of recording, in Friedrichstraße train station, a man boards the S-Bahn train. He seems lost; his gaze wanders blurrily, his feet are bare. In Berlin, this sight is all too common; homeless people are numerous but marginalized in Berlin’s sprawling city. The man journeys only one station and then disembarks: we watch him on his wobbly course until the automatic doors of the train close. We think of Wintererreis’s last song Der Leiermann, the hurdy-gurdy player: invisible, alone, on his way, without a destination.

The next day, snow wraps around Berlin even harder. Our winter journey continues, in the company of Schubert and Müller. © Arttu Kataja&Pauliina Tukiainen/Alba Records

More info

Schubert: Winterreise, Op. 89, D. 911

Arttu Kataja

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