The ideal song cycle for us melancholic types--perfect music to enhance the effect of a long, lonely winter evening--Schubert's Winterreise (Winter Journey) also happens to be one of the more remarkable marriages of music and texts in the history of lieder. These 24 songs, to poems by Wilhelm Müller, present the deeply felt sadness and desperation of one bitterly rejected in love, whose woman has been unfaithful and who now is left to suffer a self-inflicted, lonely torment as he wanders the winter land. Schubert seems to relish the vivid imagery of snow, frozen tears, bleak landscapes, and storms, and the pointed symbolism of ravens, frost-covered hair, and a last, falling leaf. Wonderful stuff--and as we move from one song to the next, Schubert's marvelously evocative music and carefully crafted re-ordering of Müller's original poems brings us fully into this singer's emotional and physical world, where we are held in Romanticism's firmest and most comforting grip. Of course, none of this would work at all without a singer who can convincingly portray the full emotional and expressive range of Müller's words and Schubert's melodies--and an accompanist who is at one with the voice. Baritone Roman Trekel and his partner Ulrich Eisenlohr are such musicians. In fact, this performance stands with the best on disc. Trekel's command of these songs is nothing short of phenomenal, from his seemingly effortless technical facility to his always tasteful yet meaningful interpretive gestures, inflections, and brilliant use of color and dynamics. In other words, this is a singer who really knows how to sing songs. And this is a disc that should be in the collection of all who love songs and Schubert and music that touches the heart and stirs the soul. [12/11/1999]

--David Vernier