The Austrian baritone Florian Boesch, liederist Essential to our times, it presents an original program contrasting the expressive worlds of two of the greatest specialists of the 19th century: Brahms and Schumann. The opening is imposing, as the Four serious songs Brahms's works—the penultimate of his publications during his lifetime—trace, based on texts from Luther's Bible, a profoundly serious exploration of life, death, and the meaning of existence. They are contrasted with lieder by the composer himself, in which the folk element takes on special prominence. After the intermission, Schumann appears with the less frequently performed songs of Poor Peter, a small cycle of miniatures inserted in Op.53, and with the celebrated Liederkreis Op.24, both collections from 1840, his most fertile year in the genre.

Program

Johannes Brahms

Vier ernste Gesänge op. 121

Sunntag, op. 47 no. 3

Blinde Kuh, op. 58 no. 1

Sehnsucht, op. 14 no. 8

Dein blaues Auge, op. 59 #8

Kein Haus, keine Heimat, op. 94 #5

Die Trauernde, op. 7 no. 5

Schwermut, op. 58 no. 5

Es steht ein Lind in jenem Tal, WoO 33 No. 41

Robert Schumann

Der Arme Peter, op. 53 (Poems by Heinrich Heine)

Liederkreis, op. 24 (Poems by Heinrich Heine)