"I shall sing you a cycle of frightful songs. I’m curious to see what you will all
say about them. They have taken more out of me than was ever the case
before.” He then sang us the whole Winterreise with great emotion."

Josef von Spaun

Two cycles of poems by Wilhelm Müller inspired Schubert’s greatest achievements as a song-writer, Die schöne Müllerin (about a young miller whose unrequited love leads him ultimately to suicide) and Winterreise. 

If the shadow of death falls over the end of Die schöne Müllerin, it haunts the whole of Winterreise. There is a sense that life has ended as the work begins; hope is already gone. The protagonist- a young man- meets no-one on his journey until the final song, when he encounters the curious figure of the hurdy-gurdy man.

"Throughout Winterreise, the dynamic processes of nature are
represented by musical landscape painting of extraordinary suggestion
and even precision: the pivoting of the weathervane, the flowing water
under ice, the rustling of leaves, the winter wind, the will-o’-the-wisp,
the slowly moving clouds, the quiet village street, a stormy morning — all
these receive a remarkable musical contour."

Charles Rosen

The twenty-four films, are in real terms, Mariele Neudecker’s own winter’s journey—to four locations on the 60th parallel north, in Shetland, and then in the vicinity of Oslo, Helsinki, and St Petersburg, taken in the dark winter months of 2003. The going and the gathering of images is one aspect of this but the implacable way these places, not of sublime dimensions, but of quiet, mundane locations, impact on our vision is perhaps the more significant. At their centre lies the enigma of arrival; we have, as has the artist, reached a specified location, but it is not a destination. 

Andrew Foster Williams was born in Lancashire and studied at the Royal Academy of Music where he was recently made an Associate. Operatic appearances include Garibaldo Rodelinda and Melisso Alcina at the Göttingen Handel Festival and Don Fernando Fidelio for Glyndebourne Touring Opera.

Christopher Gould read Music at Clare College, Cambridge before winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied accompaniment with John Streets and Malcolm Martineau. In 1996 he was the first young pianist to receive an award from The Geoffrey Parsons Trust; this was followed by the Gerald Moore Award (1998) and the first prize in the Wigmore International Song Competition (2001).

Mariele Neudecker is German born and has studied and worked in Britain since 1985 (Goldsmith’s College, BA, 1990, Chelsea School of Art, London, MA, 1992). Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including solo exhibitions at the I-Space, Krannert Art Museum, Chicago (1999); the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2000); Künstlerhaus Bethanien and Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin (2001).

Bass-baritone: Andrew Foster-Williams

Piano: Christopher Gould
Film: Mariele Neudecker

90’ 50”
24 short films on video
size variable approx. 300 x 400 cm
screen size variable.
Duration approx 1hr 15 mins

Music: Franz Schubert 1827
Text: Wilhelm Müller 1825

The films are mixed live and the show tours with two experienced technicians.  Installation happens on the day of performance. 

• Lowry
• Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD)
• Lemmington Spa (with Compton Verney Gallery)
• Linbury at Royal Opera House (in association with Tate Britain)
• National Gallery of Ireland
• Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham
• Baltic, Newcastle Gateshead
• Square Chapel, Halifax
• West Yorkshire Playhouse
• The Venue, Leeds
• Theatre By the Lake, Keswick
• Cheltenham International Festival
• St George's, Bristol

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