Winter journey

Moving on slowly with Bostridge's winter journey (see reference 1).

This morning, à propos of the third song of the cycle, some thoughts about other winter journeys, in particular those of Napoleon and Hitler into Russia. With the first of these being a recent memory for Germans at the time that these songs were written. And with the second of these being at about the time of a famous, or possibly infamous, recording by Hans Hotter and Michael Raucheisen. Plus one, Napoleon's army on that occasion probably included more German speakers than French speakers. Plus two, Bostridge comes up with the striking picture included here, a scene from the Prussian invasion of France later in the same century, painted by one Anton von Werner, maybe twenty years after the events depicted. Image courtesy of the German museum at reference 2.

The morning has also seen my first visit to a famous song called 'Gretchen am Spinnrade', appropriated from Goethe. I rather liked the Barbara Bonney version offered by YouTube - having first come across her back at reference 3.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/cloth-and-its-foldings.html.

Reference 2: http://www.smb.museum/en/home.html.

Reference 3: http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/to-clandon-or-not-to-clandon.html.