Schubert’s genre-defining cycle of "spine-chilling songs" (in the composer’s own words) is a musical and emotional journey of unprecedented intensity that makes for a fitting beginning to the Pierre Boulez Saal’s presentation of Schubert’s complete songs over the course of four seasons. The work of a young man close to death—Schubert had just turned 30 when he began composition and died less than two years later—Winterreise expresses a short life’s worth of experience in a narrative of unrequited love, pain, and glimpses of redemption, inspired by the poems of Wilhelm Müller. Baritone Christian Gerhaher, one of today’s most acclaimed lied interpreters, is joined by Daniel Barenboim at the piano.

This concert is part of the Schubert Lieder Cycle.