eine winterreise Michael Wollny

• Michael Wollny (b. 1978): ich schreibe nur im gehen:
• 1 Wollny: ich schreibe nur im gehen 03:25
• wetterfahnen:
• 2 Wollny: wetterfahnen 01:59
• schlag und schritt:
• 3 Wollny: schlag und schritt 02:50
• innehalten:
• 4 Wollny: innehalten 01:12
• Björk Guðmundsdóttir (b. 1965): aurora:
• 5 Guðmundsdóttir: aurora 02:46
• Michael Wollny: ich such im schnee vergebens:
• 6 Wollny: ich such im schnee vergebens 02:03
• Kate Bush (b. 1958): snowflake:
• 7 Bush: snowflake 04:30
• Michael Wollny: fahlschatten:
• 8 Wollny: fahlschatten 01:31
• irrlichter:
• 9 Wollny: irrlichter 02:57
• ein lindenbaum (from Winterreise, D. 911, Arr. Wollny):
• 10 Wollny: ein lindenbaum (from Winterreise, D. 911, Arr. Wollny) 03:02
• Louis Cole (b. 1986): cloud of flies:
• 11 Cole: cloud of flies 03:23
• Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828): im dunkeln wird mir wohler sein / die nebensonnen (from Winterreise, D. 911, Arr. Wollny):
• 12 Schubert: im dunkeln wird mir wohler sein / die nebensonnen (from Winterreise, D. 911, Arr. Wollny) 04:37
• Michael Wollny: schneeland:
• 13 Wollny: schneeland 01:00
• Franz Schubert: steht ihm nimmer still / der leiermann (from Winterreise, D. 911, Arr. Wollny):
• 14 Schubert: steht ihm nimmer still / der leiermann (from Winterreise, D. 911, Arr. Wollny) 03:36
• Total Runtime 38:51

Info for eine winterreise

Michael Wollny is widely acknowledged as “one of European jazz’s premier pianist/composers” (The Guardian/UK), renowned for his “graceful, compositionally daring” work and his “fantastic cross-genre musicianship” (Downbeat / USA), and praised because he “easily stands comparison with the prestigious lineage of Paul Bley, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Brad Mehldau, Esbjörn Svensson and Stefano Bollani.” (Télérama / FR). What makes him stand out above all is his ability to draw on music from a wide variety of genres and eras, and to transform it into something completely unique, and which always bears his unmistakable signature.

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.”

Michael Wollny, piano

Recorded in May 2026 at Reitstadel, Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz
Recorded by Martin Ruch
Mixed and mastered by Martin Ruch
Produced by Michael Wollny
Executive producer: Andreas Brandis

Michael Wollny
is an internationally successful jazz pianist, music inventor, unconventional thinker, popular figure. Nobody plays piano like him. His trademark: the unpredictable, the quest for the never-before-heard, the courage to devote himself to the moment, to make the unforeseen sound self-evident. His desire to keep reinventing himself, both in terms of sound and composition; that is what makes him a “consummate piano maestro” (FAZ) and “the biggest (jazz) musician personality that Germany has produced since Albert Mangelsdorff” (Hamburger Abendblatt). Wollny feels at home in many different formats: solo, in duo with musicians like Heinz Sauer, Vincent Peirani, Tamar Halperin or Konstantin Gropper, with the Michael Wollny Trio, the quartet „Out Of Land“ and many other collaborations with musicians from all kinds of musical directions such as Nils Landgren, Emile Parisien, the Norwegian Wind Ensemble, Marius Neset, Leafcutter John or Joachim Kühn.

Booklet for eine winterreise