• Title: Schubert’s Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession
• Author: Ian Bostridge
• Genre/Subject: Music biography
• Publisher: Faber/Kindle
• Publication Date: 2014
• Start date: 3/4/2022
• Finish date: 3/8/2022

Review:

An excellent exposition of Schubert’s legendary 24 song cycle: Winterreise (A Winter’s Journey).

Written by a singer who has performed the song cycle over 100 times, we get a unique behind-the-scenes look at the most challenging and renowned of all the lieder cycles performed today.

The poetry by Müller is explained and interpreted wonderfully, without getting bogged down by iambs and hexameters. Similarly with the music, you get an understanding of the individual songs without having to struggle with semiquavers and dotted triads.

Part history, part literary analysis, part musical analysis, part memoir. I am now much more engaged in listening to and understanding Winterreise.