We went to hear a postponed talk by Ian Bostridge in a local church, connected to his new book on Winterreise. He talked in general terms about the work’s history and his own performance history of it, and then expanded his thoughts on a few of the songs: their structure, mood and influence. I was interested to learn that the poems in the second half of the cycle were written after Schubert had set the first half; Schubert declined to insert settings of these poems in between those he had already composed, which may account for the disjointed narrative of the second half of the cycle.
There were just a few questions at the end. An inherent danger with post-talk question-and-answer sessions is that they get taken over by people who like the sound of their own voices, and talk at length before allowing the speaker to make a short reply. A particular hazard when many in the audience are singers!
The evening was also a fine assembly of Bath’s musical great and good, and a chance to catch up with chatting to a few of them.