Conditions could not have been more apt for Mark Padmore and
Paul Lewis’s performance of Schubert’s Die Winterreise (The Winter’s Journey) at the Sheldonian. Snow, ice and bitter winds all feature in Schubert’s great work. This song cycle sets twenty-four poems by the German poet Wilhelm Müller, and seems to rise above its romantic subject matter about a despairing, rejected lover, to achieve a heroic stature; from pathos it grows into a tragic vision of life. Using glimpses of nature and symbolism, it creates a moving, sombre yet enthralling journey of feeling, which was in this performance almost unbearably poignant.

The distinguished tenor Mark Padmore and the acclaimed pianist Paul Lewis make a wonderful duo. Their rapport was unfaltering as they brought out the nobility as well as the poignancy of this music.

Padmore sang with expression all the more exquisite for its sense of dignity and restraint, and a deliciously smooth vocal line in such songs as “Letze Hoffnung” and “Das Wirtshaus”. What a demanding thing it is for a singer to perform all twenty-four songs in this way, without any break at all to ruin the atmosphere. Padmore’s voice ranges from sounds like warm milk sweetened with honey, all the way to neat brandy, downed at a gulp! Lewis as ever highlighted the variety of textures in the piano part, some of them curious percussive and modern. In the final song, “The Hurdy-Gurdy Man” we almost seemed to be in the sound-world of Bartok and his infinitely sad dancing bear.
The audience was utterly riveted and spellbound throughout the ninety minutes of this song-cycle. I felt my understanding of the songs enriched by this performance as much as by hearing Dietrich Fischer-Diskau and Gerald Moore, or any great interpreters of the past.

Unfortunately the Sheldonian is just a little too near a main
road and there are some people who want to sound sirens in Broad Street at 7.45pm on a Saturday evening. Is there really no way of stopping this? We have so many other rules and regulations that one more could surely be justified.

Nevertheless I think everybody who attended this outstanding
concert will long retain a strong impression of it in their memory.
Julia Gasper.