Baritone singing DFD. The biggest value is the 100 pages of commentary by accompanist Graham Johnson in the CD booklet. Insightful -- 4.5 stars

Same performance as previous, packaged in a 2-CD set with a lieder recital by Arleen Auger. Great value -- 4.5 stars

Sounds like a young Wotan in self-exile from Valhalla. Bass-baritone coloring that strains at a few of the topmost notes. Vocals undermixed in about half of the songs, but still easy to love -- 4.5 stars

Prégardien is the ideal bari-tenor to perform the published version: he has an easy top and reaches the bottom without strain. His money note is the plangent top G on 'Grabe' in Die Krähe. None better. One just wishes they had recorded this performance with a modern piano instead of the 1825 Viennese fortepiano relic. It sounds no better than my family's old Howard spinet -- 4 stars

What strikes me most is how right the tempos feel. At 71 minutes, this in the middle of the pack. Jörg Demus gives a steady, eccentricity-free accompaniment. The singer is a respected Schubertian; his voice is not exactly 'sobby,' but he sounds on the verge tears in many of the songs. A valid interpretation, but sometimes you need to hear someone who isn't Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau -- 4 stars

Goerne's interpretation is much the same as on the Hyperion disc above, with almost identical running times for most of the songs. Choose this CD if you are a fan of Brendel; if you are new to Winterreise go for Johnson's liner notes in the Hyperion release. -- 4 stars

The cycle works for string quartet because Schubert wrote much of the accompaniment in four-part lines. The performance of Wasserflut give the strongest argument for playing the dotted rhythm against the triplets. One wishes for a more stable tenor to really pull off this interpretation -- 3.5 stars

Team perform the Ur-keys, except for Einsamkeit as published. They should have gone so far as to transpose some other songs up. In serving the composer's intent, Bostridge does disservice to his high, light tenor. He barely scrapes the low B in Der Lindenbaum. Andsnes's playing, as in Frühlingstraum, is sometimes more whimsical than wistful -- 3 stars

Singer and accompanist are not on the same page in this performance. Sawallisch gives an intimate parlor reading, while Hampson is in full-blown operatic mode. There is a sort of meeting of minds for the last third of the cycle, but it comes too late -- 2 stars

With all respect to Hans Hotter's performance, this is a horrible transfer of the 1940s analog source. Most songs are nearly a semitone flat; Die Krähe is a quarter tone sharp. Auf dem Flusse is on pitch but apparently digitally stretched: it runs much slower than the Music & Arts transfer. Puzzling, since the 2nd CD of Die schöne Müllerin is quite good -- 1 star