Every year there is Franz Schubert’s “Winterreise” at “Kammermusik in Pasing”, but this time everything was a little different in the small hall of the adult education center: the grand piano stood covered in the corner, and when Jonas Müller performed, the young baritone Davide Giovanni Tomasi and Marco Musso at the side. Of all the arrangements of the piano part (there are some for string quartet, piano trio or even trombone), the one for two guitars is probably the most faithful to the work, especially since songs with this accompaniment were already being sung in Schubert’s day.
To get straight to the point: there was hardly anything missing at this matinee, especially since the size of the room for just 60 listeners perfectly matched the intimacy of the accompaniment. The only problem could have been that the voice came across as too exposed and exhibited. But Jonas Müller, with his fine, excellently conducted baritone and with great conciseness and clarity, tells the story of a man who is increasingly driven to self-pity and depression by the end of a love affair, while at the same time allowing the desire to die to grow to the same extent.
With wide, sometimes incredulous eyes, the 23-year-old keeps looking into the distance and tries to get a grip on his feelings while hiking through ice and snow. But the person who has been damaged by futile love is less and less able to do this, although he knows right from the start: “Love loves to wander, from one to the other.”
In the second half it’s almost all about a grave, the graveyard, dying, the sun going out and finally – about dull survival when the desperate wanderer clings to the hurdy-gurdy and maybe makes sure that his plate doesn’t more remains empty, if only he sings accordingly, begging for pity. If Jonas Müller were the singer for the hurdy-gurdy or for the wonderfully differentiated accompaniment of the Tomasi/Musso duo – the plate would certainly be filled quickly.