Winterreise

International opera and theatre director and Ustinov Studio Artistic Director Deborah Warner brings to life Schubert’s Winterreise (Winter Journey), a cycle of 24 songs for voice and piano set to poems by Wilhelm Müller, performed by renowned tenor Ian Bostridge and pianist Julius Drake. 

A man begins a long journey through the snow in deepest winter. He wanders alone, grief stricken, longing to forget the memories of his beloved who has rejected him. His journey is tortured, painful and leads him to question his identity and existence.

Composed in 1827 towards the end of his short life, Franz Schubert’s Winterreise is considered one of the greatest and most powerful musical masterpieces. The music captures the torrent of emotion and poetic themes of loneliness, darkness, winter and love. Deborah Warner’s new staging for the Ustinov Studio honours Schubert’s original intention for the piece to be sung to an intimate gathering.  

Ian Bostridge’s extraordinary international career has taken him to the foremost concert halls, orchestras and opera houses of the world. His vast experience with Schubert’s Winterreise (he has performed the song cycle in concert over 100 times) inspires his book Schubert’s Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession (2015). 

With an international reputation as one of the finest instrumentalists in his field, Julius Drake collaborates with many of the world’s leading artists, both in recital and on disc. He has performed and recorded Winterreise with Bostridge and many artists throughout his career. 

“Winter Journey” is an indispensable work of art that should be as much a part of our common experience as the poetry of Shakespeare and Dante, the paintings of Van Gogh and Picasso, the novels of the Brontë sisters or Marcel Proust.”  Ian Bostridge