Page 131 - Winterreise Coverage Book, 2021 - 22

We were under pressure from the start. Gone are the days when the BBC would fully fund an
ambitious music project of this sort, even on a straitened budget. Its worryingly modest initial
contribution did encourage others to join in – Swiss TV and the arts streaming site Marquee, as
well as two musical philanthropists, Simon Robey and Vernon Ellis.

An oil painting of Franz Schubert by Wilhelm August Rieder, c.1875 CREDIT: Getty

But the project survived only because so many of the participants believed in it so strongly. There
was no time to waste, because the five-storey Julier Tower, erected in 2017, has to dematerialise
under planning rules by 2023. Winter 2020 was ruled out by lockdowns, and a year later Covid
was still a substantial risk, but any delay would mean losing our Tardis.

During reconnaissance in July, we realised the building was uncomfortably resonant. So, to
dampen the acoustics, we commissioned a nine-metre-diameter carpet to cover the circular stage,
and a massive black drape (10 metres square) to hang overhead. I asked Appl whether singing at
an altitude of 2,300 metres would affect either his voice or his breathing. “Don’t worry,” he said.
“I’ve got plenty of stamina”. He needed plenty of courage too, to cope with the weather.

We chose to beat the early skiers by filming in early November, a dead month in the Swiss
mountains, with most facilities closed. We had persuaded the wonderful family-run Hotel Solaria
in the village of Bivio to take us in for a week – 15 minutes away in the valley, but the nearest
source of hot food to keep us going. But would there be snow? The visionary who built the Tower,
Giovanni Netzer, was (fairly) confident there would be, but as October ended Switzerland was still
sunny, warm and dry. It was only on the day we arrived that the temperature dropped.

By then the new carpet was in place, imported from Belgium, and also the brand-new Bösendorfer
280VC grand piano, magnificent in its oak case – the prize delight of Urs Bachmann, piano
mastermind at the Verbier Festival. While the drape was hoisted above it, my cameraman,
Jonathan Partridge, and I went to recce some outdoor locations. The lake behind the tower was
lightly frozen – perhaps a place for the Wanderer to carve his beloved’s name on the ice in Auf dem
Flusse.