Following his huge success last weekend with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, ‎‎Thomas Adès will continue his stay at L’Auditori, performing ‎‎Winterreise by Franz Schubert ‎‎tomorrow, 9 November, with tenor Ian Bostridge, one ‎of the most celebrated performers in this series of concerts.‎

During his performance with the OBC, Thomas Adès’ skills as a composer and conductor were ‎revealed to the public. On this occasion, however, the spotlight will be turned on his talents ‎as a pianist. In the intimate setting of Hall 2, Oriol Martorell, the audience ‎will be able to enjoy a performance of this complex, enigmatical, sombre work by Schubert, ‎performed by these two leading British musicians. ‎

Written at the end of Schubert’s intense short life, Winterreise is a cycle of 24 ‎songs, based on poems by Wilhelm Müller that far exceed lamentations over a lost love ‎through their far more profound, deeper emotional impact.‎

The poems express the poet’s feelings as he walks alone, in winter, following a love affair ‎abruptly terminated in uncertain circumstances. Fear, cold, darkness and desolation are ‎combined with moments of joy, using a musical language that not only imitates or describes ‎what the poems convey, but which also emphasises it psychologically. The singer’s voice and ‎the piano merge into one, following the tortuous, agonising path of the poet. In contrast with ‎traditional portrayals of a melodic, fragile, sensitive Schubert, Winter Journey ‎delves into the complex, tormented personality of one of the most fascinating figures in 19th ‎century music.