Critics Pick

Wolfgang Holzmair, baritone, Russell Ryan, piano

Venue: Hertz Hall
Date: Sun March 4, 2012 3:00pm
City: Berkeley
Email: tickets@calperformances.org
Price Range: $48
Tickets: 510.642.9988

Cal Performances

Schubert's last, and perhaps greatest, song-cycle, Winterreise ("Winter's Journey"), is certain to receive a definitive performance by this distinguished Austrian baritone. A noted lieder interpreter, Holzmair commands a superb vocal instrument—"rich, sensitive and charismatic," says the New York Times—and can effortlessly illuminate a song with an almost conversational ease. Nowhere are these strengths more apparent than in Schubert's towering Winterreise, written when the composer was slowly dying, at the tragically young age of 31. Holzmair's poetic interpretation of this musical touchstone is at once a moving deathbed cry for understanding and a Romantic portrayal of a lovelorn man.