Michael Wollny’s new solo album ‘eine winterreise’ (a winter journey) is a re-imagining of the iconic song cycle by Franz Schubert that goes way beyond the original. Wollny charts a path through the ice which is uniquely his. Alongside fragments from Schubert’s original, it features passages which are newly composed, others that are freely improvised…plus we hear motifs from Kate Bush…Björk…Louis Cole… This music represents a thoroughly contemporary approach to the piano, while also being deeply rooted in the past. Full of contrasts, it can by turns be rugged, beautiful or enigmatic.

“The themes of Schubert’s “Winterreise” have the capacity to speak with astonishing immediacy; there’s no need to intellectualise – simply listening to the original stirs up so many fundamental human questions all at once,” explains Wollny. “It’s about the condition of being alone, but also about love fulfilled and love disappointed. It’s also about beginnings and farewells, and much more… It is also becomes a meditation on walking – on moving forward without having any reliable guidance, without a fixed destination, without much certainty of any kind. This music has accompanied me for my whole life; I’ve listened to it at all sorts of times and in all sorts of moods. More generally, I’ve always incorporated motifs from Schubert into my own music – and so the idea started to take shape of finding ways to get closer to this work while remaining inside my own musical language.”

Like the original, Michael Wollny’s “eine winterreise” is a sequence of short character pieces that combine to form a single and longer narrative arc. Wollny addresses the central themes of the original, then ventures farther afield in order to return to them later. “My aim was to take the elements of my journey as if doing a mise-en-scene for the theatre. There is a choreography of moods here, a precise sequence of scenes, but there’s also a kind of dream logic between the songs. In other words, certain elements that have a role in one song will then resurface later in a different form.”

Wollny weaves his interpretations of the Schubert motifs together with pop songs that hold special significance for him in this context: Björk, represented here by ‘Aurora’, is a constant companion for him; her album ‘Vespertine’ serves as an important compass. Björk produced the beats for the original track using, amongst other things, samples of footsteps in the snow. ‘Snowflake’, the opening track from Kate Bush’s album ‘50 Words for Snow’, is quite simply Wollny’s personal favourite ‘winter song, which immediately conjures up images of snowfall and snow-covered landscapes’. The most unusual track by another artist comes from drummer/producer/composer Louis Cole: ‘Cloud of Flies’ describes the moment when one realises that one has missed out on one’s own life; a line from the original lyrics reads: ‘Now when you open your backdoor, the air has never felt so cold before.’

In addition to the musical inspirations, the recording venue – the 16th-century ‘Reitstadel’ in Neumarkt, Bavaria – was also a major influence on the album. Wollny: “The room has an incredible aura, and countless piano recordings have been made there. The idea to go there came from ACT’s director Andreas Brandis; I was, of course, familiar with many of the recordings. That said, it was a bit of a blind date for me – both with the venue and with the grand piano – but it all turned out to be the perfect choice. The room has a crystalline clarity which completely fits the album’s winter theme. And the sound of the piano has not required any dynamic processing whatsoever. Everything sounds exactly as it was recorded in the room.”

In many ways, the way “eine winterreise” has come about is a journey in itself. Wollny: “For me, this journey has  had its moments of great enthusiasm, but also deep doubts – perhaps more so than with any recording I’ve ever done. I’ve probably never worked with such great formal rigour before – I’ve walked all over a huge mountain and, in the end, arrived at a place where things suddenly feel beautiful, quirky and harmonious – and where I also have some fleeting sense of clarity about where I stand at this moment.”

These thoughts seem particularly relevant at a time when the value of the human element in art is being put in question. Wollny: “We’re going through a time when it’s often being suggested that getting things done even faster is going to be better, that anything which requires less effort will be more productive. But this focus on the result alone loses sight of the value of the process, as well as the value of the insights that emerge during that time. Writing a prompt takes just a few seconds; artistic and personal development takes a lifetime. Why, then, am I feeling a little optimistic again when it comes to these questions? Because they also help to restore a sense of reason within us. Every wave generates a counter-wave, both within oneself and in society. Something is stirring right now because we sense that what we are putting under pressure is the deeply, intrinsically human element in everything we do – the very thing whose value is incalculable and priceless.”