Winter Journey: An eclectic Schubert walkabout through a Cork neighbourhood
Sophie Motley’s promenade production sets Schubert’s solitary dread loose on a wider community.
Meeting outside Dance Cork Firkin Crane, Cork Midsummer Festival
★★★☆☆
In the cosy front room of a Cork guest house, a group sits and watches an intimate performance by a singer. The dreamy, bedroom-pop weave of looped vocals and minimalist instrumentation is an undeniable sound of the 21st century. However, the lyrics might date from further back, with lines sounding similar to “I will pierce ice and snow / With my burning tears, ”or “When my sorrows are stilled / Who will speak to me?” It could be a cover of Franz Schubert’s “Erstarrung” – or “Numbness” – from 1827.
Schubert might have liked the oblivion of Rachael Lavelle’s darkly ethereal pop music – “Erstarrung” comes from Winterreise, the extraordinary song cycle chronicling a man’s solitary walk in the snow after being rejected by a lover. Adapted from a poetry collection by German writer Wilhelm Müller, the man descends into a disaffected trance, picturing himself dying alone.