Winterreise by Christoph Prégardien / Michael Gees

Christoph Prégardien / Michael Gees

Winterreise

Format: SACD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917259629
Catnr: CC 72596
Release date: 08 July 2013

Hi-res download at Spirit of Turtle

1 SACD
		Hi-res download at Spirit of Turtle

Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917259629

Catalogue number
CC 72596

Release date
08 July 2013

"Gees and Prégardien understand each other exactly in small liberties in tempo and dynamic accents"

Luister, 03-3-2014

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

About the album

Schubert's "Winterreise" is one of the most famous song cycles that exist in classical music and musicians take it up again and again because of its beauty, sorrow and depth. It is about life itself and which performer does not want to give his or her opinion on life? Both tenor Christoph Prégardien and pianist Michael Gees have their own vision on the cycle. Playing together, a third view develops, combining their two visions into an exciting interpretation of Winterreise.

In this production the music lover has more ways than one to enjoy this Lieder cycle to the fullest.

Schubert’s beroemde liedcyclus ‘Winterreise’
Schubert's Winterreise is een van de meest bekende liederencycli die bestaan in de klassieke muziek. Musici nemen het steeds weer op omdat het zo mooi is en omdat het zoveel pijn en diepgang in zich draagt. Het gaat over het leven zelf en welke musicus wil nu niet zijn kijk op het leven vastleggen? Zowel tenor Christoph Pregardien als pianist Michael Gees hebben hun eigen visie op het werk. Door samen te spelen, ontwikkelde zich weer een variant daarop.

Christoph Prégardien is een wereldberoemde tenor, en heeft bijna 200 opnames gemaakt voor alle bekende platenmaatschappijen. Hij werkt regelmatig samen met pianist en componist Michael Gees.

Der Tenor Christoph Prégardien und der Pianist Michael Gees stellten sich gemeinsam mit Challenge Classics einer besonderen Herausforderung.

Eine Neuaufnahme der „Die Winterreise“ von Franz Schubert, die die Musikliebhaber nicht nur als CD erhalten können, sondern neben der Audio-Erfahrung dazu die beiden Musiker in einem Film und weiterem Dokumentationsmaterial erleben dürfen.

Die CD wurde in Super-Audio-Qualität aufgenommen und entspricht nicht nur in klanglicher Hinsicht hohen Qualitätsansprüchen, sondern wie gewohnt bei dem Duo Prégardien-Gees auch unter musikalischen Aspekten. Die jahrelange Erfahrung dieser beiden Ausnahmemusiker gibt dieser Winterreise ihre eigene Qualität.

Ein innovativer Weg des Musikerlebnisses.

Challenge Classics lancia la sua prima produzione audio-film-documentario: una maniera innovativa di vivere la musica.
Gli appassionati possono essere quasi realmente presenti nello studio dove i musicisti eseguono e registrano la musica per il film. Utilizzano i primi piani, le espressioni, il coinvolgimento e l’intensità dei musicisti risultano ancora più diretti e personali di quanto sarebbe stato in un concerto. La versione video (in formato DVD o BluRay – con bonus CD) comprende il documentario Winterreise, The Third Way, con interviste a Prégardien e Gees e il dietro le quinte delle sessioni di registrazione.

Il Viaggio d’inverno op. 89, D. 911 (1827) di Schubert è uno dei più celebri cicli liederistici della storia della musica. I musicisti ritornano più e più volte su questo capolavoro, per la sua bellezza, tristezza e profondità. Il tenore Christoph Prégardien e il pianista Michael Gees hanno ciascuno una propria visione del ciclo. Eseguendolo insieme ne scaturisce una ‘terza via’, che fonde le loro due visioni in una straordinaria interpretazione del Viaggio d’inverno.

Le precedenti registrazioni su Challenge Classics del duo Prégardien e Gees hanno procurato loro diversi premi, compresi due Midem Awards.

Artist(s)

Christoph Prégardien (tenor)

Born 1956 in Limburg, Germany, Christoph Prégardien began his musical education as a choirboy. He then studied singing with Martin Gründler and Karlheinz Jarius in Frankfurt, Carla Castellani in Milan, Alois Treml in Stuttgart and attended Hartmut Höll’s lieder-class.
Widely regarded as among the foremost lyric tenors, Christoph Prégardien frequently collaborates with conductors such as Barenboim, Chailly, Gardiner, Harnoncourt, Herreweghe, Luisi, Metzmacher, Nagano, Sawallisch and Thielemann. His repertory spans a wide range from the great Baroque, Classical and Romantic Oratorios to 20th century works by Britten, Killmayer, Rihm, Stravinsky.
Recognized as an eminent recitalist, Christoph Prégardien is regularly welcomed at the major recital venues of Paris, London, Brussels, Berlin, Cologne, Amsterdam, Salzburg, Zurich, Vienna, Barcelona and Geneva, as well as during his concert tours throughout Italy, Japan and North America.
A longstanding collaboration unites him with his favourite piano partners Michael Gees and Andreas Staier. Soloist of choice for renowned orchestras, he performed with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Gewand-hausorchester Leipzig, London Philharmonia, Staatskapelle Dresden, Philharmonie de Radio France, the Montreal, Boston, St. Louis and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras.
An important part of his repertory has been recorded by labels such as BMG, EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, Sony, Erato, Challenge Classics and Teldec. He is represented on more than a hundred and twenty titles, including nearly all of his active repertoire. His recordings of German Romantic Lied repertory have been highly acclaimed by the public and press and have received international awards including the prestigious Orphée d’Or of the Académie du Disque Lyrique-Prix Georg Solti, Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Edison Award, Cannes Classical Award and Diapason d’Or.
As an opera singer, Christoph Prégardien has made stage appearences in major European houses, performing leading roles as Tamino (Zauberflöte), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Almaviva (Il Barbiere di Seviglia), Fenton (Falstaff) and Monteverdi’s Ulisse. In Spring 2005, Christoph Prégardien sang the leading part in Mozart’s “La Clemenza di Tito” at the Paris National Opera conducted by Sylvain Cambreling.
An important aspect in the musical life of Christoph Prégardien is his intensive and varied educational work. From 2000 to 2005 Christoph Prégardien was in charge of a vocal class at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Zurich. Since the autumn of 2004, he is a professor at the Musikhochschule Köln. In a new combination of DVD and book, released in the serie “Schott Master Class”, he presents for the first time questions of singing technique and interpretation in word and picture. Film examples accompagny him during his lessons with masterclass students.
Christoph Prégardien now has a long-term cooperation with Challenge Classics. The first production on our label, released in February 2008, was Schubert’s “Die schöne Müllerin” with pianist Michael Gees. In the fall of 2008 “Schwanengesang” with pianist Andreas Staier followed and “Die schöne Müllerin” was awarded the Midem ‘Record of the Year’ 2009 at MIDEM, the world’s largest music industry trade fair. The duo Christoph Prégardien/Michael Gees also received the MIDEM ‘Vocal Recitals’ Award 2009. Throughout 2008 the recording received critical acclaim from many national and international magazines (Gramophone, Editor’s Choice & „Best of 2008“ among others).

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Michael Gees (piano)

'Throughout the evening Gees played as if he had composed the pieces himself and was therefore extremely vigilant to make sure the performance was carried out according to his inner ear. His eyes were not those of an artist intent on reproduction, but shone rather a lambent look of passion, just as one might imagine the composer as the creator.“ N. Campogrande Michael Gees’ biography certainly justifies the term: exceptional. Few others can claim to have a career already behind them at the tender age of fifteen: Born in 1953 into a world of sound and music, both parents are singers, the piano is his favourite toy at age three. Formal piano lessons follow at age five, and the young musician subsequently goes...

"Throughout the evening Gees played as if he had composed the pieces himself and was therefore extremely vigilant to make sure the performance was carried out according to his inner ear. His eyes were not those of an artist intent on reproduction, but shone rather a lambent look of passion, just as one might imagine the composer as the creator.“ N. Campogrande Michael Gees’ biography certainly justifies the term: exceptional. Few others can claim to have a career already behind them at the tender age of fifteen: Born in 1953 into a world of sound and music, both parents are singers, the piano is his favourite toy at age three. Formal piano lessons follow at age five, and the young musician subsequently goes on to win the Steinway Competition at age eight and receives a scholarship at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.
The child prodigy is hailed as “Westphalian Mozart“, takes up studies at the conservatories in Detmold and Vienna and it seems as if he is fast on his way to become an internationally acclaimed pianist. Were it not for the gifted child’s longing to explore the world of sound on his own terms, to playfully experience his self like the great masters’ music, to invent their music all over again, note for note instead of limiting himself to a technical practice regimen. Michael Gees flees the pressure of a predetermined competitional career at the age of fifteen, leaves school, conservatory and home behind, supports himself through odd jobs, works as archeological assistant and, in the process, for the duration of two full years, becomes a sailor.
Chance leads him back to the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover, where he resumes his compositional studies and eventually graduates. He now develops first rate pianistic chops on his own, composes a number of works, gains international renown as lied accompanist of extraordinary proportions with Christoph Prégardien and also appears in concerts globally; in Paris, London, New York and Tokio. All the while, he nurses and feeds his preference for combining the performance of music of past masters with living inspiration, thereby creating remarkable performances with his instrument.
In 1989, Gees founds “forum kunstvereint“ in his adopted hometown of Gelsenkirchen; the Consol Theater, also installed by him, opens its doors in 2001 on the confines of the former mining area Consolidation. There, music, dance and theatre projects take shape, where children, youths and adults alike are incited and encouraged to discover and realize their own artistic impulses. A steady number of CDs have been released from 1996 onward on forum kunstvereint, CPO and EMI, showcasing Michael Gees’ range.
Since 2008 Michael Gees is associated to the Netherlands label Challenge Classics. The 2009 release of the Schöne Müllerin with Christoph Prégardien won the MIDEM Classical Award and became Recording of the Year. Michael Gees works on solo-recitals which enjoy breaking with tradition, on modernized lied-renditions, melodramas and stage music.

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Composer(s)

Franz Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer. Schubert already died before his 32nd birthday, but was extremely prolific during his lifetime. His output consists of over six hundred secular vocal works (mainly Lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music and a large body of chamber and piano music. Appreciation of his music while he was alive was limited to a relatively small circle of admirers in Vienna, but interest in his work increased significantly in the decades following his death. Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms and other 19th-century composers discovered and championed his works. Today, Schubert is ranked among the greatest composers of the late Classical and early Romantic eras and is one of the most frequently performed composers of the early nineteenth century.
It was in the genre of the Lied that Schubert made his most indelible mark. Prior to Schubert's influence, Lieder tended toward a strophic, syllabic treatment of text, evoking the folksong qualities engendered by the stirrings of Romantic nationalism. Schubert expanded the potentialities of the genre like no other composer before.

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Press

Gees and Prégardien understand each other exactly in small liberties in tempo and dynamic accents
Luister, 03-3-2014

"It invites us to participate in the musical journey of two excellent musicians"
www.sonograma.org, 29-9-2013

"So sings Prégardien and so guides Gees. You can hear in each measure how they have grown together over the years. Deeply touched, tragic and at the same time an overwhelming authenticity"
www.opusklassiek.nl, 25-9-2013

5 out of five stars ***** for Recording and Performance "Winterreise proves worth the wait" "This Winterreise has a visionary quality that only the best achieve."
BBC Music Magazine, 02-9-2013

The Voice is in superb form, sensing out the underlying pulse and the minutest inflections of longing, delight, determination and soul-weariness within each lithe, live line of melody. Accompanying, Michael Gees has freshly reconsidered so much detail, too - possibly, it seems to me, with an ear to Schubert's late piano music.
BBC Music Magazine, 01-9-2013

This is beautiful singing by a master of his craft [...]. Michael Gees is a perfect accompanist, and allows Prégardien and the music plenty of room to breathe. [...] I was immediately captivated by the sheer beauty of the singing, the quality of the vioce and especially by the feeling that this man just 'lives' Winterreise.
Early Music Review, 01-8-2013

This is beautiful singing by a master of his craft, and Prégardien brings to the cycle his early-music-specialisation qualities of precise diction, tuning and articulation
Early Music Review, 01-8-2013

The expression is more interiorized, where Gees and Pregardian unsterstand eachother precisely and feel each other dynamically exquisite.
Luister, 25-7-2013

Christoph Prégardien and Michael Gees satisfy completely
Fono Forum, 01-7-2013

With every song a suprise in accent or detail.
Luister, 17-6-2013

Three elements complete each other at this production in an almost perfect way: the piece of art, its congenial interpretation and the latest audio- and videotechnology, which supports the music in a professional and elegant way.
Kulturradio am Mittag, 06-6-2013

This is a powerfully original performance by Schubert's journey into the distracted mind.
Sunday Times UK, 02-6-2013

This is a powerfully original performance of Schubert's journey into the distracted mind.
Sunday Times UK, 02-6-2013

"Even if singing and music are getting maintaining the delicate of balance of sound between piano and tenor exuberant"
www.writteninmusic.com, 31-5-2013

Christoph Prégardien and Michael Gees leave without a doubt sufficient room for imagination and ample opportunity to bring the protagonist from fantasy to life through SACD.
Klassieke Zaken, 29-5-2013

Prégardien's ability to shade and mutate the delicate emotional inflections with almost imperceptible subtlety personalise this account, coupled with Gee's string but reflective playing.
The Scotsman, 20-5-2013

Tenor Christoph Prégardien and pianist Michael Gees are a class pairing when it comes to the heart of German lieder
The Scotsman, 20-5-2013

5-star review ***** Christoph Prégardien, one of the most inspiring singers of his time, partners with Michael Gees: an experienced chamber musician with vision, who not only serves the singer, but will also retort.
Knack Focus, 15-5-2013

Gees makes the chords blend, erases nuts, all to make the text and desolate mood of the record sensible and Prégardien is happy to accompany him. The result is this Winterreise which sounds as an autobiography.
Volkskrant, 08-5-2013

Master storytellers at work. Their performance is so good that interpretation and music seem to melt together.
De Telegraaf Weekeinde, 04-5-2013

From the start Prégardien takes you on a journey, which is controlled and dramatic at the very right moments.
Mania Klassiek, 03-5-2013

this recording proves a deep comprehension and intensiveexamination with Schubert's compositions
Bayrischer Rundfunk, 29-4-2013

The tenor is still focusing on pure sound and on a natural speech formation. A mixture which moves to tears
NDR, 10-4-2013

Gripping, beautiful and colorful Winterreise
Du Holde Kunst, 10-2-2013

Pregardien remains at once one of the most scrupulous and moving interpreters of winterreisse.
Gramophone , 01-12-2012

Prégardien goes consciously to the limits of his voice
Das Opernglas