You might have thought it impossible to deliver a fresh Winterreise, the great, late Schubert song cycle in which he plumbs the depths of romantic despair (or delves into protest against the repressive Austrian state, depending on whom you believe). Even tenor Mark Padmore has recorded the work, with Paul Lewis on piano, and recorded it well. Yet this version is something new, with fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout as accompanist. The work has been recorded with a fortepiano before, but Bezuidenhout uses the instrument in a novel way: it rumbles darkly, and sets gentle or uncanny moods as the text demands. The opening "Gute Nacht" is done straightforwardly and hardly hints at the wonders to come, but soon things diverge from the norm. Schubert told his friends that these songs were "terrifying," and here you can really understand what he meant: Padmore eschews tenor heroics and matches Bezuidenhout's novel sounds with chilly vocal timbres of his own. He likes pregnant pauses, even in the placid "Der Lindenbaum"; in "Auf dem Flusse" they are edge-of-the-seat compelling, and you can really imagine, as never before, the intent circle of connoisseur friends for whom Schubert wrote this music. One hates to recommend a spoiler, but sample the final "Der Leiermann" ("The Hurdy-Gurdy Player"), which has never sounded so wan and heartbreakingly defeated. Harmonia Mundi opts for a Mennonite church in Haarlem for the sound; while this captures clearly what Padmore and Bezuidenhout are doing, it loses some of the intimacy that Padmore gets with his performance. Very highly recommended.