An exploration of the world’s most famous and challenging song cycle, Schubert's Winter Journey (Winterreise), by a leading interpreter of the work who teases out the themes—literary, historical, psychological—that weave through the twenty-four songs that make up this legendary masterpiece. Drawing equally on his vast experience performing this work, on his musical knowledge, and on his training as a scholar, Ian Bostridge teases out the enigmas and subtle meanings of each of the twenty-four lyrics to explore for us the world Schubert inhabited, his biography and psychological makeup, the historical and political pressures within which he became one of the world’s greatest composers, and the continuing resonances and affinities that our ears still detect today, making Schubert’s wanderer our mirror.