Poetic Songs
The 16th Liedtage from 9 to 13 February explore romanticism and modernity.
Save the date: The programme for the ‘Liedtage XVI’ at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar has now been finalised. On four evenings from 9 to 13 February 2025, an artistic spectrum will unfold, ranging from Robert Schumann's famous song cycles to Arnold Schönberg's ‘Book of Hanging Gardens’ in the years of upheaval at the beginning of the 20th century.
‘Both those who make music and those who listen will find something original and beautiful here,’ says Prof. Karl-Peter Kammerlander, professor of artistic song design and curator of the Liedtage.
The festival opens with a concert programme of songs by Max Bruch on Sunday, 9 February at 7:30 pm in the Festsaal Fürstenhaus. Bruch's songs, written between 1858 and 1920, are rarely performed. The trajectory of his songwriting ranges from simple folk songs to dramatic ballads to harmonically complex works.
‘This compilation is only possible thanks to the Max Bruch Society Sondershausen, the editorial care of the Cologne-based Dohr publishing house and the preparation by Guido Johannes Joerg, to whom we owe the new complete edition of the songs,’ explains Kammerlander.
The programme continues on Tuesday, 11 February at 7:30 p.m. in Room 108 of the Fürstenhaus with a ‘Lecture Recital’: Prof. Karl-Peter Kammerlander explains the origin of some of the most beautiful song compositions by Johannes Brahms based on Georg Friedrich Daumer's translations of Hafiz.
This will be followed by the final concert of the song course ‘Unbekannte Moderne’ on Wednesday, 12 February at 7:30 pm in the Festsaal Fürstenhaus with songs by Arnold Schönberg, Grete von Zieritz and Anton Webern, among others. ‘The purpose of the song course is to discover the great, hidden repertoire of classical and contemporary modernist songs and to bring them to the ears of the audience,’ says Prof. Christoph Ritter, who is directing the Lied course.
At the end of the song days, it will once again be deeply romantic. In the ‘Lied Mosaic’ on Thursday, 13 February at 7:30 p.m. in the Festsaal Fürstenhaus, the popular cycle ‘Frauenliebe und -leben’ (Women's Love and Life) by Robert Schumann will be heard, among other pieces, as one of the most heartfelt examples of German art song. Schumann is one of the greatest poets in song, who spent his life uniting language and music.
The programme is rounded off with vocal works by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Petrarca Sonnets by Franz Liszt. ‘The three Petrarca Sonnets are emblematic of Liszt's adoration of Italy, with their exalted vocal lines in every respect, embedded in complex pianistic structures,’ explains the professor of song interpretation Thomas Steinhöfel.
Admission to all concerts is free!
[17 December 2024]