Christoph Pregardien and Michael Gees Collaborate on Winterreise

Impeccable musicians and renowned collaborators, tenor Christoph Prégardien and pianistMichael Gees come together to create a new vision of Schubert's iconic and intensely profound song cycle, Winterreise. The new recording from Challenge Classics can be found as a luxurious Hybrid Super Audio book edition, as well as on DVD and Blu-ray with a 21-minute documentary detailing the studio recording process. Winterreise is available in North America from Allegro Classical on July 9.

"Winterreise remains a challenge throughout a singers' career," says Prégadien, who has recorded the work previously, "My view ofWinterreise and what happens to the young man in these songs has changed over the past 10 to 15 years. The longer I performed the Lieder, the more I realized that the man is struggling with his destiny, with the loss of his beloved ... death is not the central theme here." For Gees, Winterreise is a work with a mission in this world: "The mission I believe consists in creating music out of one's suffering. This is something humans should do. It is a way of coping creatively with suffering."

Prégardien and Gees's additional recordings for Challenge Classics include another great Schubert cycle, Die schöne Müllerin, as well as a collection of songs and arias entitled Between Life and Death. All Music Guide calls Die Schöne Müllerin "a recording worthy of taking pride of place on the shelf alongside such classic versions as those by Richard Crooks, Aksel Schiøtz, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and is in considerably better recorded sound than any of them. Prégardien's voice soars, the piano rolls through both right and left channels as waves in a babbling brook, echoing the very sentiments expressed in Wilhelm Müller's pre-Romantic texts. This is a sensitive reading demonstrating complete integration with the material ..."

Widely regarded as among the foremost lyric tenors, Christoph Prégardien frequently collaborates with many of the world's most esteemed conductors at major concert venues throughout Europe and North America. His performances can be heard on more than 120 recordings for labels including BMG, EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, Sony, Erato, Challenge Classics and Teldec. His recordings of German Romantic Lied repertory have received international awards including the prestigious Orphée d'Or of the Académie du Disque Lyrique-Prix Georg Solti, Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Edison Award, Cannes Classical Award and Diapason d'Or.

Michael Gees made his concert debut in his native Bielefeld in 1963. He studied at the Vienna Musikhochschule before pursuing his training in Detmold and Hannover, where he also studied jazz and composition.

Impeccable musicians and renowned collaborators, tenor Christoph Prégardien and pianistMichael Gees come together to create a new vision of Schubert's iconic and intensely profound song cycle, Winterreise. The new recording from Challenge Classics can be found as a luxurious Hybrid Super Audio book edition, as well as on DVD and Blu-ray with a 21-minute documentary detailing the studio recording process. Winterreise is available in North America from Allegro Classical on July 9.

"Winterreise remains a challenge throughout a singers' career," says Prégadien, who has recorded the work previously, "My view ofWinterreise and what happens to the young man in these songs has changed over the past 10 to 15 years. The longer I performed the Lieder, the more I realized that the man is struggling with his destiny, with the loss of his beloved ... death is not the central theme here." For Gees, Winterreise is a work with a mission in this world: "The mission I believe consists in creating music out of one's suffering. This is something humans should do. It is a way of coping creatively with suffering."

Prégardien and Gees's additional recordings for Challenge Classics include another great Schubert cycle, Die schöne Müllerin, as well as a collection of songs and arias entitled Between Life and Death. All Music Guide calls Die Schöne Müllerin "a recording worthy of taking pride of place on the shelf alongside such classic versions as those by Richard Crooks, Aksel Schiøtz, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and is in considerably better recorded sound than any of them. Prégardien's voice soars, the piano rolls through both right and left channels as waves in a babbling brook, echoing the very sentiments expressed in Wilhelm Müller's pre-Romantic texts. This is a sensitive reading demonstrating complete integration with the material ..."

Widely regarded as among the foremost lyric tenors, Christoph Prégardien frequently collaborates with many of the world's most esteemed conductors at major concert venues throughout Europe and North America. His performances can be heard on more than 120 recordings for labels including BMG, EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, Sony, Erato, Challenge Classics and Teldec. His recordings of German Romantic Lied repertory have received international awards including the prestigious Orphée d'Or of the Académie du Disque Lyrique-Prix Georg Solti, Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Edison Award, Cannes Classical Award and Diapason d'Or.

Michael Gees made his concert debut in his native Bielefeld in 1963. He studied at the Vienna Musikhochschule before pursuing his training in Detmold and Hannover, where he also studied jazz and composition.