Florian Boesch’s debut disc on ONYX was the highly acclaimed Schumann Heine Lieder (ON4041), and he again teams up with Malcolm Martineau for the journey through the bleak and wintry landscape of Schubert’s Winterreise. Composed in 1827, work on the settings of Wilhem Muller made Schubert agitated and disturbed according to friends. Indeed the songs shocked his friends when first heard – so powerful is the emotional content of the music that it still has the ability to shock and move the listener. The journey starts with ‘Goodnight’, as our traveller walks away from us into the moonlit snowy landscape. At the end of the cycle ‘The Signpost’ he takes the path to his death. ‘His acccount of the Liederkreis is a slow-burning, intropsective affair. But he can be totally forthright, as in the ballad Balthazar, which has a tremendous dramatic presence.Having an accompanist as perceptive and exquisitely musical as Malcolm Martineau is a big asset, too. These are lieder perfomances of a very high order indeed.’ The Guardian **** ‘The Austrian baritone Florian Boesch, a regular on the opera circuit, reveals himself here as a Schumann natural, flickering with finely controlled mood in and out of the shadows of 25 poems by Heinrich Heine. The shadows are alternately inviting and ominous. Boesch, partnered by Malcolm Martineau’s sensitive pianism, evokes them in vocal brush strokes that range in texture from velvet to hemp.’ Evening Standard *****
"...This is an impressive traversal of Schubert’s winter journey. Florian Boesch’s singing is consistently involving and interesting and the support he receives from Malcolm Martineau is first class. Boesch enters fully into every song and it’s clear that he’s delving below the surface of the music. This is a fine addition to the discography of this engrossing song cycle. John Quinn - musicweb-international.com - 19 June 2012
"Boesch presents us with a slow unravelling of the psyche, as merciless as it is detailed. The hallucinatory quality of his interpretation is matched by a corresponding vividness in Matineau’s playing ,which suggests the corrosive impact of the comfortless winter landscape on the protagonist’s mind.It makes for very difficult listening, but it is unquestionably superb" Tim Ashley - The Guardian - 11 November 2011
