Forwad-Festival: Schumannliebe 2

Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe tells a love story. It blossoms hopefully “in the wondrous month of May” and ends in bitter disappointment. For Christian Jost, these sixteen Heine settings are “the tonal realization of the imaginings of a torn soul”; for Jörg Widmann, they are “the highest achievement ever produced in the combination of language and music.” Both have sought to create new compositions based on the famous song cycle, translating it into the present in entirely different ways. Jost adds his own interludes to Schumann’s melodies, embedding them “like islands” in “a tonal stream of the subconscious.” Widmann stays closer to the original, creating motivic connections between the individual songs while opening up a new sound world of his own with his original instrumentation, extended playing techniques, and expansive use of percussion. Later on the same evening, the German pianist Johanna Summer will add another echo of Dichterliebe — one born in the moment ...

Performers:
Ensemble of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO)
Christian Jost, conductor (Jost)
Jörg Widmann, conductor (Widmann)
Fatma Said, soprano
Matthias Goerne, baritone

Program:
Christian Jost (*1963)
Dichterliebe for soprano and ensemble after Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Op. 48

Jörg Widmann (*1973)
Schumannliebe for baritone and ensemble. Arrangement of Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Op. 48

Tickets as from 4.8. | 10:00 am (CET)