Finnish baritone
Jorma Hynninen brings a voice with a warm, substantial tone and is capable of considerable power to Winterreise, but he uses it with great restraint in most of these songs. From start to finish,
Hynninen's singing is absolutely gorgeous, beautifully produced, and achingly poignant. His use of his head voice in some of the high-lying passages seems absolutely right both musically and as an expression of the songs' emotion. While his singing has the utmost sophistication and his shaping of the lines is finely nuanced, there is something a little too reserved about his approach to the psychology of the protagonist. In the quieter songs, his singing is ideally sensitive, and songs like "Gute Nacht" are a marvel of tenderness and of desire held closely in check, but there are others, such as "Erstarrung," where the singer's passions should sound like they're getting the best of him, and
Hynninen fails to deliver the intensity the music and text seem to call for. For the listener who is more interested in exquisite bel canto than in angst-ridden psychological probing,
Hynninen's performance should be entirely satisfying. The playing of
Ralf Gothóni is ideally sensitive to the music's mercurial shifts. Using changes in weight and emphasis and the subtlest rubato, he effectively conveys the emotional conflict of the songs. His is a performance of memorable individuality that never veers into eccentricity. Ondine's immaculate sound is crystal clear and nicely present.