Music in the Round: Autumn Series - Roderick Williams and Christopher Glynn

For his first recital in his series presenting all three of Schubert’s great song cycles, Roddy Williams will be joined by pianist Christopher Glynn to sing Winterreise. It has all the ingredients of being a landmark occasion: one of the finest song recitalists in the world singing possibly the greatest sequence of songs ever to be composed, in his first full-length concert as Singer-in-Residence at Music in the Round!

Schubert described Winterreise to a friend as “a cycle of terrifying songs” that “please me more than all the rest, and in time they will please you too.” Wilhelm Müller’s poems depict a solitary individual amid nature at its cruellest and coldest: it’s a vision of numbing intensity expressed in music that is by turns bold and desolate. The singer’s journey proceeds relentlessly towards desolation, alleviated only by shards of piercing beauty along the way that merely highlight the descent into a personal hell.

“Roderick Williams imbued each song with myriad colourful nuances, his rich, burnished baritone lovely throughout the evening.” New York Times