Album: Schubert, Winterreise - Alice Coote/Julius Drake (Wigmore Hall Live)

Female artists have sung Winterreise before, but not with the intensity of mezzo-soprano Alice Coote.

Recorded over two live performances, Coote's interpretation is remarkable not only for the range of timbres employed but for the way in which time stops over the course of the 24 songs in the cycle. Shadowed by pianist Drake, Coote's tempi are idiosyncratic, some brisk, others stretched to devastating effect. A fearless and harrowing reading, half-kiss, half-slap.