Winterreise

Description

In this new recording of Schubert’s Winterreise (Winter Journey), German tenor Jan Kobow offers a chance to discover these melodies in the keys that Schubert originally chose. Jan Kobow also benefits from an accompaniment performed on a Viennese-made grand piano that dates back to the 1810s. The precious instrument was carefully restored some 200 years later by Ulrich Weymar in Hamburg. Jan Kobow believes that “this instrument has a clear and bright tone, which is sometimes contrary to the darker colors we are used to when hearing the Winterreise cycle. But this is compensated for by a lower pitch where A is at 420 Hertz.” Jan Kobow and his accompanist, Christoph Hammer, wanted the instrument tuned to a floating unequal temperament to better bring out the qualities of the historical instrument from the Brodmann workshop, instead of using an “equal” temperament as is usually the case today.

Jan Kobow has a particular fondness for the lied, especially for the German art song of the Romantic period. It includes five recordings devoted to lieder. He works with fortepiano specialists such as Kristian Bezuidenhout and Christoph Hammer.