Album: Schubert, Winterreise, (Harmonia Mundi)

There is an interesting reversal of roles in the first release of Mark Padmore and Paul Lewis’s series of Schubert song cycles for HM.

Here Padmore is the scene-setter, forfeiting conventional beauty of tone in an arrestingly frayed performance that conveys the anguish of Wilhelm Müller’s dislocated protagonist. At times, his singing borders onSprechstimme, while Lewis’s articulation, phrasing and voicing is rapt and lyrical. The balance between voice and piano is exceptional, the interpretation bold and complex.