Joyce DiDonato on Schubert’s Winterreise

Joined by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the American mezzo takes a different approach to this song masterwork

In 2019, Joyce DiDonato and Yannick Nézet-Séguin performed Schubert’s great song-cycle in concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and Erato were on hand to record it. James Jolly caught up with the multi-Gramophone Award-winning mezzo to talk about her unique approach to the work. As one of a handful of women singers who have recorded Winterreise, Joyce needed to find her own way into the cycle, as she explains from her house in Spain.

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Joyce DiDonato on Schubert's Winterreise

You are here to serve the words, the director, the melody, the author, the chord progression, the choreographer ~ but above all and most importantly, with every breath, step, and stroke of the keyboard, you are here to serve humanity.