SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ARTS 2015: Winterreise

PUBLISHED April 20th, 2015 04:07 pm | UPDATED June 9th, 2020 08:39 pm

Eminent baritone Matthias Goerne, consummate pianist Markus Hinterhäuser and renowned South African artist William Kentridge resurrect Franz Schubert’s Winterreise in a powerful trio of voice, music and images – a confluence between songs composed in Vienna in the 1820s, and images created in South Africa 190 years later.

Schubert’s Winterreise, or Winter’s Journey, tells the profound tale of an emblematic wanderer who struggles through a frozen landscape of death. Related through 24 hypnotic melodies set to the haunting poems of Wilhelm Müller (a tradition known as lieder for single singer and piano), the song cycle captures a time of immense repression of the individual following the restoration of the Empires of monarchical power in Europe.

Written on his deathbed, Schubert’s songs focus on the emotions felt and experienced by an individual as he toils through crushing despair and snowy climes, only for his solitary search to end in a transcendental encounter with an old organ grinder.

The imaginative visual films – incorporating Kentridge’s signature animations, montages and collages – form a poetic counterpoint to a luminous interpretation of Schubert’s masterpiece by Goerne, accompanied with great sensitivity by Hinterhäuser. A journey of the heart that affirms the inspiring power of art, this powerhouse production from the illustrious Festival d’Aix-en-Provence is not to be missed.

Winterreise is performing live from Friday, 4 September to Saturday, 5 September at 8pm at the SOTA Concert Hall.

To purchase tickets, please click [here](http://www.sistic.com.sg/events/sifa2015l).