Ever tried that children\u2019s game of trying to pat your head while rubbing your stomach? Or drawing a circle with one hand and simultaneously a triangle with the other? The key is coordination, of course, and plenty of that is required if you are playing the piano and singing at the same time.<\/p>\n
Born in the UK, raised in Canada and based in Germany, pianist-soprano Rachel Fenlon is renowned for her self-accompanied concerts. On May 12, she made her Hong Kong debut with a performance of Franz Schubert\u2019s Winterreise<\/em>.<\/p>\n We are not talking about casual, barroom-style singing and playing here, but possibly the longest, most challengingly intense song cycle ever penned. The shadow of death hangs over much of Schubert\u2019s late music, and Winterreise<\/em> \u2013 a cycle of 24 songs \u2013 features around 80 minutes of almost unremitting gloom.<\/p>\n Here, through the poems of Wilhelm Muller, the composer explores the psychological descent of a lonely old traveller through a barren, wintry landscape.<\/p>\n Unlike Die Schone Mullerin<\/em> (The Beautiful Miller\u2019s Daughter), Schubert\u2019s earlier song cycle that features a semblance of plot and also some hope, Winterreise<\/em> is more a series of scenes and emotional states, ranging from heartbreak and isolation at the sunnier end of the scale, to utter despair by the end \u2013 a fairly typical day at the office for a German Romantic poet.<\/p>\n![\"Fenlon,](\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/05\/15\/56491353-b4db-488e-87a6-aebc31b8e75c_4480a11e.jpg\" "\\"Fenlon,")
<\/div>