Lyrical mosaics
The “Liedtage XVIII” with a spectrum ranging from Rilke settings to Chilean art songs
At the end of the semester, the audience can once again look forward to enchanting journeys into the sensitive worlds of art song. For the 18th time now, the “Liedtage” at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar invites you to four very different concerts between February 3 and 11. Admission to all concerts is free.
The series begins with a song recital entitled “Großes Opus – Kleiner Zyklus” (Great Opus – Small Cycle) on Tuesday, February 3, at 7:30 p.m. in the Festsaal Fürstenhaus. By combining songs into cycles, “many composers wanted to counteract the fleeting nature of songs, their intense but very time-compressed message,” explains the artistic director of Liedtage XVIII, Prof. Karl-Peter Kammerlander. “These ideas are presented to us this evening in song groups by Gabriel Fauré, Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss, and other composers.”
As a tribute to a great poet, a concert will be held on Wednesday, February 4, at 7:30 p.m. in the Saal Am Palais on the occasion of “Rainer Maria Rilke's 100th anniversary of his death.” Both earlier and contemporary composers have ventured to set Rilke's poetry to music. Songs by Petr Eben, Ernst Krenek, Viktor Ullmann, Paul Hindemith, and Moritz Eggert will be performed. Prof. Karl-Peter Kammerlander will moderate the concert.
Chilean art songs will then take center stage at the third Liedtage event on Tuesday, February 10, at 7:30 p.m. in the Festsaal Fürstenhaus. “The relationships between composers and the German language and culture are diverse,” explains Prof. Christoph Ritter, who offered a course on German-language Chilean art songs during the winter semester. “We encounter exciting artist biographies between cultures.” Art songs from the late Romantic, Impressionist, and Modern periods will be performed.
At the end of the song days, the audience can look forward to a “song mosaic” on Wednesday, February 11, at 7:30 p.m. in the Festsaal Fürstenhaus with songs by Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and others. The evening will be moderated by Prof. Thomas Steinhöfel.
[26 January 2026]