Subtle peculiarities

There are already more than 50 recordings of Franz Schubert's Winter journey - there should be good reasons for another recording. André Fischer (guitar) and Raphaël Favre (tenor) argue with the "masterpiece". The special feature, however, lies more in the guitar, which in this case replaces the usual piano. Fischer based his transcription on the transcriptions by the German guitarist Tilman Hoppstock and the Japanese Masanobu Nishigaki. Hoppstock played twelve songs from the Winter journey with the well-known tenor Christoph Prégardien (Christophorus 77352, 2011).

So you can't speak of an innovation - but you can speak of a special enrichment of the CD shelf! There is nothing forced or forced about this complete Winter journey with all 24 songs themselves. Everything sounds natural. Raphaël Favre's straight tone contributes to this. There is nothing of kitschy melodrama or cheap vibrato in the vocal part, which is in tune with the authoritative, personal tone of the guitar. Bernhard Hanke, the sound engineer, finds exactly the right balance between intimacy and sound development. The dynamic relationship between voice and guitar could not be finer.

The only point of criticism: the packaging, which is important in download times. It is teeming with orthographic "idiosyncrasies" that don't even stop at one of the greatest composers. You should still reach for an "F. Scubert", as it says on the back of the CD. Quietly and often!