Recorded in July 1985, this is the sixth of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s seven commercially published versions of Schubert’s Winterreise, and easily the finest of the baritone’s recorded collaborations with pianist Alfred Brendel. Originally Fischer-Dieskau had rejected this performance for issue, but later relented. We can understand his initial reservations: the 60-year-old singer could not negotiate notes above the staff with his former, more youthful suppleness, while louder passages like the climaxes of “Die Wetterfahne” and “Die Post” are effortfully sustained. As a word painter, however, Fischer-Dieskau digs deeper than ever, rethinking old details and inventing fresh ones along the way. “Rückblick” is a case in point, where the vocal line proceeds with greater urgency and intensity, no doubt galvanized by the harmonic tension Brendel generates from the piano part. By contrast, Fischer-Dieskau’s understatement in the final song is not enacted but chillingly internalized.
Brendel is every inch the singer’s equal partner. His spiky staccatos and occasional jangling tone constitute different pianist priorities from Gerald Moore’s luminous, bell-like accompaniments, or Daniel Barenboim’s richer, bass-oriented sonority. Still, there’s tremendous assurance and sense of purpose governing Brendel’s opinionated and utterly absorbing preludes, interludes, and postludes. This may not be Fischer-Dieskau’s best sung Winterreise, but it’s his most personal and deeply felt, and we’d all be poorer without it. [5/30/2001]
