Hans Hotter and Gerald Moore possessed a degree perhaps of unequaled technique and profound approach of getting "inside" the music. Their imaginative musicality and intimate climate were a determining cause of models to many other lieder musicians as well as their relationship to time with Schubert. It is this relation to time which is in the Winterreise at the center of their interpretation is at an extraordinary degree of objectivity and temporal flux. Thank you for posting this beautiful document.
+Richard Sykes especially like yours and naomis comments stubled upon an old lp set of this and started listening to this version such sublime music i was immediately struck with awe at the great art schubert composed in spite of his circumstances beethoven is brought to mind also
+Richard Sykes as a collector of mono classical this is what sold me on buying a westminster 2 lp set with victor carne tenor and gerald moore piano wl 5087-8 this lp set has the words in german and english take care my friend
+William Perry Der Leierman always makes me tear up too...............................the thought of any old person standing barefoot in the snow and ice trying to get enough money for something to eat speaks volumes to me.
A brilliant performance from both; absolutely magical. I'm ill in bed but its been almost worth it to find this and listen without distraction right through, and follow the words in English (. theoryofmusic.wordpress.com/2009/07/18/english-translation-of-schuberts-winterreise-poems-by-w-muller). Thanks so much for posting.
I can not imagine a finer presentation or during a long life have I ever heard as outstanding a presentation. Alas, there are two flies in the wonderful Hotter ointment: a> unlike the Busch brothers, he was content to perform in Germany throughout the War; and b> when I heard him in London in 1972 his lost vocal command was heartbreaking.
Hum... Interesting, I actually prefer the version Hans Hotter recorded with Michael Raucheisen ( Moore here is sublime as usual ) but there's a sense of disquiet and desperation in the 1943 recording.
You are completely right, sir! Maybe you will read my little annotations to the version with Michael Raucheisen. In his comments on "Winterreise" recordings Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau mentions the "deep grey of winter" (tiefes Wintergrau) in Hotter's approach(es), feeling probably that Hotter's versions are greater than his own; not only Hotter's mightier, much more touching voice. By chance I have been witness of the tribute of Wiener Staatsoper to Hotter's 90th birthday (after a performance of - I think - Wagner's "Die Msitersinger von Nürnberg".) Hotter told the people that the audience is never in the world better than in Vienna. "Und das ist kaa(n) Schmäh!" I do not know how to translate the typical Austrian word "Schmäh" into good English. At the end of my little contribution I leave the issue completely. I have to use English in some of my lectures speaking to the students (zoological, hydrobiological subjects) the following words in my introductions: "I shall use now the English spoken in the urban finge of my hometown, Wiener Neustadt." (Austria)
Apology and Correction: I was significantly unfair to Hotter. He was staunchly anti-Nazi but his family was not allowed to travel outside of Germany during the Hitler years.
