Joanna Neilly, German Fellow at St Peter’s College, Oxford, introduces the poet Wilhelm Müller and explores why his poem cycle Die Winterreise reaches further than we think and well beyond Schubert’s great cycle. Joanna’s talk is illustrated by tenor Ted Black with pianist Ana Manastireanu, who were recently finalists in the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Awards.
Joanna Neilly writes of Die Winterreise:
Wilhelm Müller’s 1824 poem cycle Die Winterreise is unparalleled in German literature for the range of its cross-cultural influences. The transnational reach of its literary reinvention is obscured by its most popular adaptation as Franz Schubert’s Lieder cycle, a mainstay of Germanic musical tradition. But contemporary global incarnations include an Argentinian novel (2009) about sex and translation; a Chinese play (2015) confronting the past of the Cultural Revolution via a story of friendship, betrayal, and old age; and an opera (2019) about African migrants to Europe, co-created by an Irish writer (Toibin) and an Italian composer (Einaudi) and featuring artists from Senegal, Mali, and Ghana. More than an intertext, Die Winterreise generates newly imagined worlds, far from its origins and yet intimately connected to the source by their central common theme: the tension between solitude and community as the bases of creative power.
This event will be streamed completely live from the Holywell Music Room. Shortly afterwards, it will also be available to watch again, using the same ticket and link, until 21 March (11 April for Pioneer Pass holders).
Festival Passes giving access to the whole weekend of music are also available for purchase on our website:
Full weekend pass (£40) - view all festival events live online & on demand for 3 weeks
Pioneer Pass (£80) - as above, but with 6 weeks to view on demand
Pioneer Plus Pass (£100) - as above, plus access to selected Oxford Lieder Festival 2020 archive footage