Winterreise op. 89 D 911

Franz Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise, to poems by Wilhelm Müller, is regarded as one of the absolute highpoints of the genre. It was composed in 1827 and first published in two volumes in 1828 by Tobias Haslinger of Vienna. Its initial reception was mixed – one reviewer in Berlin found it simply too long with its 24 songs, and Schubert’s friend Schober only liked the “Lindenbaum” – but the Viennese press praised the “beautiful, noble work” enthusiastically, thereby anticipating the unanimously positive opinion of it that reigns today.

For this Urtext edition Henle has, along with the first edition, been able to consult several of Schubert’s autographs, together with contemporary copies whose variants provide interesting information on ornamentation and phrasing practices at the time.