Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin - from joy to despair

Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin - a journey from optimism to despair and tragedy.

A current Radio 3 New Generation Artist, the tenor Santiago Sánchez, is joined by the pianist Joseph Middleton in a recording made this summer at Wigmore Hall of Schubert's epoch-making song cycle.

Schubert: Song cycle 'Die schöne Müllerin,' - 'The Fair Maid of the Mill', D. 795

Santiago Sánchez (tenor)
Joseph Middleton (piano)

Choosing twenty poems from a recently-written set by Wilhelm Müller, Schubert places the entire story in the realm of the miller's imagination. With its range of vocal writing and its breathtaking piano part, conjuring up images of a running stream, the grinding of wheels and cogs and the blast of a hunter's horn, the twenty-six-year-old Schubert created in this first song cycle a musical drama no less revolutionary than those of Wagner. It's a tragic twist of fate that Wilhelm Müller would not live to hear Schubert's settings for, as he wrote: "... my songs lead but half a life, a paper existence of black-and-white, until music breathes life into them..."

For over a quarter of a century, Radio 3’s prestigious talent scheme has provided an invaluable springboard for many of today’s leading international soloists and chamber music ensembles. Indeed, a list of the former alumni reads like a Who’s Who of the international music scene with names like Alice Coote, Lisa Batiashvili, Igor Levit, Sean Shibe, Alison Balsom, Anastasia Kobekina and the Belcea Quartet.