Peter Harvey - Winterreise - Rondo Magazin (English Translation)

First you are struck by the sheer beauty of this baritone voice. Then by the virtually perfect diction: Janet Baker was perhaps the last British singer from whose mouth we heard such natural and effortless German. ... In the last phrase of the third song - almost cried out into the hostile winter landscape - the otherwise ever-present warmth in Harvey's voice pales suddenly into a piercing cold, without the slightest affectation on the part of the singer: no interpretative finger-pointing effects, rather a nuance of technique, coming entirely from within however, and arising directly from the feelings, which is why it unfolds to such stupendous effect ... utterly convinced by this fabulous new recording of 'Winterreise'.

At first he is only wounded, then despairing, later sarcastic and caustically cynical. This is a dramatic and deeply moving process, during which the Wanderer, alone and without hope, sees the burgeoning flower of his blighted youth fall victim to a brutal destruction. This is what Peter Harvey makes us feel in his wonderful version of 'Winterreise', in a way that scarcely any other performer of this cycle has managed to do until now.