Winterreise is perhaps the greatest song cycle ever written. Franz Schubert set to music the evocative poetry of his contemporary, German lyricist Wilhelm Müller. It is a heart-rending portrayal of a winter journey full of misery and woe. It took great courage for Schubert to set Müller's poetry to music, because he saw in it his own possible fate, one of unimaginable bleakness. Andreas Schmidt writes: “The “Winter Journey” is to the Liedersänger what the great oratorios of J.S. Bach are to the oratorio singer and Mozart's or Wagner's operas are to the opera singer: a continuous challenge, a warm feeling of ‘coming-home’ time and again, and a familiar, dear friend, with whom one has seen the good, the bad and the ugly sides of life. “ Schmidt returns to this greatest of song cycles at the height of his powers and with a lifetime of experience.