WINTERREISE
Winterreise, Schubert’s darkest song cycle, is the story of one man’s journey through a winter landscape.
Whether this world is actual or metaphorical is not clear, and whether this is the story of a young man rejected by early love, or of an older man who finds that his age excludes him from the world of love is not apparent, nor is it important.

The cycle starts at the end of a love story. Rejection is heard in the first verse of the first song, and after that the only way open to the wanderer is written on the ‘wegweiser’, the signpost, that points to insanity and possibly death. The only living things he encounters on the way are a raven, and the organ grinder who is making his own journey in the same landscape.

At the end, there is no easy death as in Die Schone Mullerin, nor a relaxed farewell as in Schwannengesang, only a chance meeting with the anonymous organ grinder, and the final question ‘willst du meiner lieder diene leier drehn?’, will you play my songs with me? The strong dramatic thread in Winterreise lends itself to a semi-staged performance.


Tim Cranmore studied singing and recorder at the Guildhall School of music. He then took up a career as a recorder maker, but still participates in local music activities, including roles with Bel Canto Opera in their recent productions of Martha and The Merry Wives of Windsor. He also teaches the recorder, and is director of the Great Malvern Recorder Festival. He is presently a lay clerk at Worcester Cathedral.

Andrew Morris lives and works in Leominster where he is active as a music teacher and a creator and originator of large scale musical events such as If you go down to the woods tonight (Queenswood Arboretum 1998), Over the Boundary (Hereford Courtyard 1999), Lemster's Milenium of Musicke (for BBC Music Live 2000) and This is how we built the Priory (Leominster 2003).
As a professional pianist/harpsichordist/keyboard player he has worked in a wide range of musical situations from baroque continuo to solo piano recitals, exam accompanying to private parties, lieder and song recital accompanying to cocktail bar.
Studied contemporary piano repertoire with John Tilbury with a grant from West Midland Arts. Since 2000 he has worked on projects at a number of Herefordshire and Shropshire schools funded by The Music Pool and the National Foundation for Youth Music.