A "Winter Journey" with Thomas Quasthoff

The German baritone Thomas Quasthoff was born in 1959 severely handicapped because of a “drug”, thalidomide, which was discovered to be a poison for the pregnant women who used it. But as if to challenge fate, he was also born with magnificent abilities, those of his voice, his personal determination and the temperament of an exceptional artist. In fact he is the most beautiful gift provided by the German scene since Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in terms of the interpretation of the lied, and in terms of interpretation, full stop.

Here he is, one evening in 2005 at the Berlin Philharmonic, accompanied on the piano by Daniel Barenboim in Schubert’s Winter Journey which he regularly sings on all concert stages. Composed in 1827, one year before the Schubert’s death, this cycle of twenty-four lieder written on poems by Wilhelm Müller is a dazzling masterpiece combining wanderings, solitude and separation...

Needless to say, his interpretation is a touchstone for singers, especially since the many versions performed by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau may appear as unsurpassable. But with his warm voice full of deep humaneness, as powerful as thunder and as light as morning dew, Thomas Quasthoff takes up the challenge superbly and invites us on an unforgettable journey.