Winter Afternoon, alongside Vision Fugitive, completes the diptych of performance films conceived to reconsider the act of translating music to the screen. What began as a second one-shot film with elaborate camera choreography was reduced here to nine fixed frames—nine uninterrupted shots existing side by side. Visual considerations for Franz Schubert's music had already begun to form in my mind a few weeks before filming Vision Fugitive, when I was tasked with performing a Schubert recital on a fortepiano. 

The return to the context of a historical instrument proved invaluable. While few innovations from early 19th-century Viennese workshops remain on the modern piano, this intense period of piano gadgetry demonstrates an overarching pursuit of contrast and unusual effects. Where historic instruments may fall short in mechanics or grand dynamic range, they compensate with a spectrum of alternative sound worlds, unparalleled in their capacity to create atmospheres of intimacy and transparency. These effects are entirely in line with compositional intentions, and Schubert often echoes these capabilities through his dynamic markings and choice of register.

More importantly, they are evident in extreme shifts of character. For example, in his second Moment Musical, in the span of a single measure, we arrive from a double pianissimo to a sudden forte, with no harmonic or dynamic bridge. The forte abruptly inserts a transformed F-sharp minor, an absolute antithesis to the preceding stillness of A-flat major. Were Schubert a filmmaker, this could be a jump cut. His episodic nature and wild modulations closely mirror montage techniques: this is a surface brimming with possibilities for both camera choreography and editing. Nevertheless, the temptation to respond visually to all of these points encountered friction with a memory of observing Trevor Pinnock’s rehearsal process for Schubert’s Ninth Symphony. While working through the second movement, Pinnock paused to ask: "But why are you so active here? Nothing is happening."

As musicians, we are trained to be rigorous in our approach to the score. Every marking holds value. However, it takes another kind of discipline, after all has been said, learned, and studied, to walk away from this type of engagement and achieve expression. Pinnock’s comment offers a valuable insight for filmmakers: even though we may consider every detail, not every detail warrants an active response. There are a myriad of effects at play in specific compositions, especially in the expansive forms of Schubert. Sometimes, a kind of detachment is needed to create certain senses of time, structure, and space. [read more]

Director of Photography - Stewart French

Sound - Caroline Siegers, Oliver Glynn

Color Grade and Online Conform - Christiaan Meyer, Windsor Creative

Theatre Technical Manager - Liam Rudd

Head of Lighting - Gary Landick

Recorded at the Royal Academy of Music, London, United Kingdom