The response to last week's Die schöne Müllerin at Beeb was rather unenthusiastic, and there was nothing here at all, iirc. As for last night's Winterreise, there's nothing anywhere from what I can see.

Any thoughts on either performance?

I just heard the Winterreise. Not particularly involving, although my eyes did still fill up at points. I can't seem just to see it as a piece of music any more. Annoyed that Der Wegweiser finished in G minor, and then Das Wirtshaus was in F. All the versions I've heard before do Wegweiser in F minor, and it's the contrast between minor and major that makes the moment all the more moving. And what's the deal with Das Wirtshaus finishing so loudly??

I didn't hear it, but I may try Listen Again. Generally, I am a great admirer of Padmore. I like his voice and I think he's a very intelligent singer. I've heard a marvellous Schöne Müllerin from him, and then the recent one, which was less good. If he was singing Winterreise near where I live, I'd definitely be there.

How strange. I wonder why.


Not in my copy it doesn't.

This whole thing about changing keys, no doubt for the benefit of the particular voice concerned, worries me a lot. I know it goes on; and I don't have a problem with it for individual items. But when individual songs from a cycle are transposed willy-nilly I get worried. Composers do tend to plan their key-structures and/or relative pitching of musical sequences quite carefully, and it's often a crucial aspect of structure. So this seems, potentially, like a rather cavalier habit on the part of some singers. 

Almost invariably not. On the other hand that wasn't how the composers did things when they transposed individual songs either. Schubert originally wrote several of the songs in Winterreise in different keys from the eventually published ones: Rast in D minor (with a slightly different vocal line), Wasserfluth in F# minor, Der Leiermann in B minor, Muth in A minor, there are probably others I've forgotten.

Now Schumann, there's a different matter. Don't get me started on op. 35 or I'll rabbit on all day.

There's a crescendo marked in the Bärenreiter edition before the lines "nun weiter denn, nur weiter / mein treuer Wanderstab"; there's no following p marking.

In that case, how loud does Schubert want it to get?! A continuous crescendo would hardly be practical, since the singer's top F at "nur" would naturally be louder than the end of the phrase because it is higher. And what about the bulge in the penultimate bar?