
Marcus Farnsworth baritone
Libby Burgess piano
Schubert Winterreise
Our Schubert Odyssey begins with Winterreise, that epic tale of lost love and despair. Our protagonist has been rejected by his beloved, and sets out on a brutally icy and lonely journey, with only the snow, the bare trees and the occasional crow to keep him company. A gradual descent into madness ensues, depicted in some of Schubert’s most devastatingly beautiful music. Schubert himself was dying when he wrote this bleak and powerful cycle, described by Ian Bostridge as ‘an indispensable work of art that should be as much a part of our common experience as the poetry of Shakespeare and Dante, the paintings of Van Gogh and Picasso, the novels of the Brontë sisters or Marcel Proust.’
An established song duo of ten years’ standing, Marcus and Libby return to the Beverley stage after their memorable Dichterliebe in our very first festival.