German tenor Jonas Kaufmann is acclaimed for his passionate interpretations of the great tenor roles in operas by Verdi and Wagner, Puccini and, yes, Massenet. But many of his fans do not realize he is equally passionate about the more introspective songs of Schubert and Schumann, Brahms and Hugo Wolf.
Kaufmann recently recorded Schubert's great song cycle Winterreise with pianist Helmut Deutsch on Sony Classical. The album, which is currently available at the Metropolitan Opera's online store, will be released nationwide on April 1.
This cycle of 24 settings of poems by Wilhelm Müller is generally regarded as the pinnacle of lieder singing, a sequence of songs as thrilling for listeners as it is for the performer.
Kaufmann says, "Against the background of all the horror stories that bombard us today, we are undoubtedly rather more hardened than Schubert's contemporaries, and yet even today's listeners can still find this cycle affecting."
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