Baritone André Schuen and pianist Daniel Heide. Franz Schubert - Music Box, May 27th, 2024

A song cycle: a rare listening experience in itself, and, in fact, one of the most renowned song cycles in the history of music -Winter Journey by Franz Schubert.

This is an opportunity to listen to Italian baritone AndréSchuen on a Deutsche Grammophon album released on May 17th. 40-year-oldSchuen studied at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg with the Romanian soprano HorianaBrănișteanu, and he performs regularly on the world's most prestigious opera stages. Schuen has been aDeutsche Grammophon artistsince 2021, and the album presented today is his third release with the renowned German record label - together with the same pianist Daniel Heide, Schuen has previously recorded two other major Schubert song cycles: The Lovely Maid of the Mill and Swan Song.

The Lovely Maid of the Milland Winter Journey are song cycles in the truest sense of the term, designed by the composer, not by the publisher, as a musical sequence with an internal musical logic.Winter Journey is a work from 1827, published in 1828 - Schubert would pass away in November 1828 at the age of just 31, and this song cycle is the last work he was able to complete, with his final corrections.

Schubert was already very ill while working on theWinter Journey cycle, knowing that death was imminent and very near. Aged only 30, he found himself in the "winter" of life, and the music and lyrics of these 24 lieds capture, like a monodrama, the image of the wandering artist, disillusioned in love, rejected by all, confronting death, with the final impression left by the extraordinary song The Organ-Grinder -Der Leiermann, an embodiment of relentless existence.

These songscreate a dark and cold atmosphere, speaking of the sorrow of an untimely death, but also of the philosophical meanings of life and death, which only far too few of us still ponder nowadays.

It is by no means easy to perform this song cycle-not because of the vocal challenges, but because of the level of expressiveness and understanding that is required. The dialogue between voice and piano is essential-the piano is not only an accompanist, but also a commentator on the drama. Pronunciation, phrasing, and the vibrato of the voice-all must be handled with great finesse; there is no place for mistakes in the perfect balance Schubert envisioned between poetry and music.

André Schuen and Daniel Heide manage to paint this picture of the Winter Journey with a wonderful interpretation-sensitive, yet not overly sentimental-splendidly sung in German (Schuen, born in Tyrol, Italy, speaks three languages: Italian, Ladino, and German), with a perfectly suited touch on the piano. The collaboration between the two musicians is almost symbiotic.

This is an opportunity for us to explore a rare listening experience in almost 80 minutes of music, performed to exemplary standards. It is also a chance to reflect on our lives, at a time when we are more likely to focus on the next amusement or distraction, rather than the meaning of our fleeting existence on this earth.