Engagements

Deborah Warner Director
Isabelle Kettle Assistant Director
Ian Bostridge Singer
Julius Drake Pianist

International opera and theatre director and Ustinov Studio Artistic Director Deborah Warner brings to life Schubert’s Winterreise (Winter Journey), a cycle of 24 songs for voice and piano set to poems by Wilhelm Müller, performed by renowned tenor Ian Bostridge and pianist Julius Drake.

A man begins a long journey through the snow in deepest winter. He wanders alone, grief stricken, longing to forget the memories of his beloved who has rejected him. His journey is tortured, painful and leads him to question his identity and existence.

Composed in 1827 towards the end of his short life, Franz Schubert’s Winterreise is considered one of the greatest and most powerful musical masterpieces. The music captures the torrent of emotion and poetic themes of loneliness, darkness, winter and love. Deborah Warner’s new staging for the Ustinov Studio honours Schubert’s original intention for the piece to be sung to an intimate gathering.

Ian Bostridge’s extraordinary international career has taken him to the foremost concert halls, orchestras and opera houses of the world. His vast experience with Schubert’s Winterreise (he has performed the song cycle in concert over 100 times) inspires his book Schubert’s Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession (2015).

With an international reputation as one of the finest instrumentalists in his field, Julius Drake collaborates with many of the world’s leading artists, both in recital and on disc. He has performed and recorded Winterreise with Bostridge and many artists throughout his career.

“Winter Journey” is an indispensable work of art that should be as much a part of our common experience as the poetry of Shakespeare and Dante, the paintings of Van Gogh and Picasso, the novels of the Brontë sisters or Marcel Proust.” Ian Bostridge

Véronique Gens,, soprano
Fleur Barron, mezzo-soprano
Laurence Kilsby, tenor
Stéphane Degout, baritone
Susan Manoff, piano
Julius Drake, piano

The Gabriel Fauré Centenary Celebrations open with a song gala involving some of Fauré’s finest contemporary interpreters, who explore the composer’s output at various stages, and all of whom share in the performance of La bonne chanson.

Programme

Priya Mitchell, violin
Dirk Mommertz, piano
Reto Bieri, clarinet
Hugo Ticciati, violin
Tetiana Lutsky, violin
Marc Sabbah, viola
Biran O’Kane, cello
Julius Drake, piano

Programme:
MacMillan Kiss on wood
Sally Beamish The Flittin’
Elgar Piano Quintet, op.84

Elgar’s magnificent piano quintet is one of his last masterpieces, written at the end of the Great War which destroyed the world he had grown up in, with all its stability and self-confidence. Here Elgar’s inimitable grandeur, with its usual traces of doubt, encloses a deeply moving, elegiac slow movement, and indeed echoes of the war itself. Before the quintet, MacMillan’s haunting meditation on the wood of Christ’s cross, and Sally Beamish’s commission for our 2018 Festival, about leaving her Scottish home of many years, to return to England

Elisabeth Leonskaja, piano
Julius Drake, piano

Programme:

Julia Kleiter, soprano
Christoph Prégardien, tenor
Julius Drake, piano

Programme

Felix Mendelssohn
Es lauschte das Laub Op. 86 No. 1
Morgenlied Op. 86 No. 2
Die Liebende schreibt Op. 86 No. 3
Allnächtlich im Traume Op. 86 No. 4
Der Mond Op. 86 No. 5
Altdeutsches Frühlingslied Op. 86 No. 6
Frühlingslied Op. 19a No. 1
Das erste Veilchen Op. 19a No. 2
Winterlied Op. 19a No. 3
Neue Liebe Op. 19a No. 4
Gruss Op. 19a No. 5
Reiselied Op. 19a No. 6

Franz Liszt
Schwebe, schwebe, blaues Auge S305/1
Kling leise, mein Lied S301/2
Mignons Lied (Kennst du das Land) S275/2
Wo weilt er? S295
Im Rhein, im schönen Strome S272/1
Morgens steh’ ich auf und frage S290/1
Anfangs wollt’ ich fast verzagen S311
Du bist wie eine Blume S287
Vergiftet sind meine Lieder S289
Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam S309
Die Loreley S273/4
Die Macht der Musik S302

Felix Mendelssohn
Abschiedslied der Zugvögel Op. 63 No. 2
Ich wollt’ meine Lieb’ ergösse sich Op. 63 No. 1

Christianne Stotijn, mezzo-soprano
Julius Drake, piano

Programme:
Rachmaninoff & Tchaikovsky Romances
Bosmans: Drie liederen op Duitse tekst
Ravel: Kaddish en l’Enigme éternelle

The Dutch mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn has been chosen for the opening concert because of her stunningly beautiful voice. We are particularly looking forward to a song written especially for her by the Dutch composer Fant de Kanter, which she will perform solo. Stotijn will be accompanied by the renowned English pianist Julius Drake and will also sing, among others, Romances by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, songs by the Dutch composer Henriëtte Bosmans, and two songs by Ravel based on Hebrew melodies.

Holger Falk, baritone
Julius Drake, piano

This is a rare opportunity to hear Hanns Eisler’s astonishing Hollywood Songbook, performed by the ‘irresistible’ (The Arts Desk) Holger Falk, and Festival favourite Julius Drake. This epic song cycle was started in a Hollywood hotel in 1942 and saw the composer collaborate closely with fellow émigré Bertolt Brecht. The result is a searing and still relevant commentary on inequality, war and enforced immigration, set against the seemingly beautiful backdrop of Los Angeles. Not to be missed.

PROGRAMME
Hanns Eisler (1898 – 1962)
Hollywooder Liederbuch (Holywood Songbook) (1941) (1941-43)
An den kleinen Radioapparat
Ostersonntag

Fleur Barron, mezzo-soprano
Julius Drake, piano

NDR Vokalensemble
Klaas Stok, director
Julius Drake, piano

The NDR Vokalensemble presents vocal works by Franz Schubert and Arnold Schönberg in the Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall. Pianist Julius Drake accompanies the ensemble under the direction of Klaas Stok. »I am a conservative. I preserve progress,« Arnold Schönberg is said to have once said. As contradictory as the statement sounds, it is true. In retrospect, the name Arnold Schönberg is often equated with atonality and twelve-tone music – but the composer’s path there led him through the Romantic period. Schönberg sought modern elements in Romanticism, which he was able to transform and continue. He also studied and arranged works by Franz Schubert.

Programme:
Selected works by Arnold Schönberg and Franz Schubert

Ofelia Sala, soprano
Julius Drake, piano

When Victoria de los Ángeles passed away in 2005, Ofelia Sala paid a beautiful tribute to her at the Gran Teatre del Liceu. Years later, in 2013, Sala was the inaugural voice of the LIFE Victoria series, performing with Helmut Deutsch in a recital at La Pedrera. Now, eleven years later, she returns to the festival, this time collaborating for the first time with Julius Drake. Together, they offer a heartfelt tribute to Victoria de los Ángeles during this centenary edition, featuring works by Mozart, Strauss, Schubert, and Brahms. For Ofelia Sala, Victoria de los Ángeles has always been an undisputed inspiration. She holds a special place in Julius Drake’s heart as well, as she was his mother’s favorite singer.

NDR Vokalensemble
Klaas Stok, director
Julius Drake, piano

The NDR Vokalensemble presents vocal works by Franz Schubert and Arnold Schönberg in the Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall. Pianist Julius Drake accompanies the ensemble under the direction of Klaas Stok. »I am a conservative. I preserve progress,« Arnold Schönberg is said to have once said. As contradictory as the statement sounds, it is true. In retrospect, the name Arnold Schönberg is often equated with atonality and twelve-tone music – but the composer’s path there led him through the Romantic period. Schönberg sought modern elements in Romanticism, which he was able to transform and continue. He also studied and arranged works by Franz Schubert.

Programme:
Selected works by Arnold Schönberg and Franz Schubert

Nicky Spence, tenor
The Piatti String Quartet
Julius Drake, piano

The phenomenal tenor Nicky Spence is known as one of the most charismatic figures of classical music. He was awarded ‘Personality of the Year’ by BBC Music Magazine in 2022, is a former winner of the BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award, and Gramophone’s Solo Vocal Award. For the closing concert of this year’s Festival, he joins forces with the pre-eminent pianist Julius Drake and one of the UK’s finest string quartets. Together they perform Fauré’s great cycle La Bonne Chanson, which sets the poetry of Paul Verlaine. Marcel Proust was an early fan, writing that ‘it appears needlessly complex … but I don’t care, I adore it!’ After this, a series of tributes in song, with works by Schubert, Vaughan Williams, Poulenc, Coward and others, provide a truly exuberant finale.

Programme:
Gabriel Fauré (1845 – 1924)
La bonne chanson (1894) Op. 61
Une sainte en son auréole
Puisque l’aube grandit
La lune blanche
J’allais par des chemins perfides
J’ai presque peur, en vérité
Avant que tu ne t’en ailles
Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d’été
N’est-ce pas?
L’hiver a cessé

Matthew Polenzani, tenor
Julius Drake, piano

Ludovic Tézier, baritone
Julius Drake, piano

Mark Padmore, tenor
Julius Drake, piano

Anna Prohaska, Soprano
Julius Drake, Piano

Soprano Soprano Anna Prohaska and Pianist Julius Drake come together once again to present selections from their highly praised album “Paradise Lost”

“This project, which has been two years in the making, finds Anna Prohaska and Julius Drake exploring music on the themes of Eve, Paradise and banishment.

Some songs were obvious choices, such as Fauré’s Paradis, in which God appears to Eve and asks her to name each flower and animal, or Purcell’s Sleep, Adam, sleep with its references to Genesis. But Anna Prohaska also wished to illustrate the cliché of the woman who brought original sin into the world and her status as a temptress who leads man astray, as in Brahms’s Salamander, Wolf’s Die Bekehrte or Ravel’s Air du Feu. In Das Paradies und die Peri, Schumann conjures up the image of Syria’s rose-covered plains. Bernstein also transports us to the desert with Silhouette.

John Milton’s seventeenth-century masterpiece Paradise Lost was the inspiration for Charles Ives and Benjamin Britten, also featured in this very rich programme that constitutes an invitation to travel and reflection.”

Programme:
Maurice Ravel:
Trois beaux oiseaux du paradis (from Trois chansons)
Air du Feu (from L’enfant et les sortilèges)

Olivier Messiaen:
Bonjour toi, colombe verte (from Harawi)

Gabriel Fauré:
La chanson d’Ève

Claude Debussy:
Apparition

Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur:
Ce qu’Adam dit à Ève

Igor Stravinsky:
Pastorale

Hugo Wolf:
Die Spröde (from Goethe-Lieder)
Die Bekehrte (from Goethe-Lieder)

Johannes Brahms:
Salamander (from Fünf Lieder)

Aribert Reimann:
Gib mir den Apfel (from Kinderlieder)

Benjamin Britten:
A Poison Tree

Hans Pfitzner:
Röschen biß den Apfel an (from Alte Weisen)

Sergei Rachmaninoff:
Au…! (from Zes liederen)

Charles Ives:
Evening

Henry Purcell:
Sleep, Adam, sleep and take thy rest

Franz Schubert:
Auflösung
Abendstern

Robert Schumann:
Jetzt sank des Abends gold’ner Schein (from Das Paradies und die Peri)
Warte, warte, wilder Schiffsmann (from Liederkreis)

Hanns Eisler:
Jeden Morgen, mein Brot zu verdienen (from Die Hollywood-Elegien)
Diese Stadt hat mich belehrt (from Die Hollywood-Elegien)

Gustav Mahler:
Das irdische Leben (from Des Knaben Wunderhorn)

George Crumb:
Wind Elegy (from Three Early Songs)

Leonard Bernstein:
Silhouette (Galilee)

Günther Groissböck, bass
Julius Drake, piano

Lucy Crowe soprano;
Karim Sulayman tenor;
Julius Drake, piano

Programme:
Felix Mendelssohn
Abendlied Op. 8 No. 9
Erntelied Op. 8 No. 4
Pilgerspruch Op. 8 No. 5
Frühlingslied Op. 8 No. 6
Romanze Op. 8 No. 10
Hexenlied Op. 8 No. 8
Keine von der Erde Schönen WoO. 4 No. 1
Schlafloser Augen Leuchte WoO. 4 No. 2
Das Waldschloss WoO. 17 No. 1
Pagenlied WoO. 17 No. 2
Todeslied der Bojaren WoO. 18 No. 2
Ich hör’ ein Vöglein WoO. 18 No. 1

Franz Liszt
3 sonetti di Petrarca S270/2

Interval

Franz Liszt

Freudvoll und Leidvoll S280/2
Wieder möcht ich dir begegnen S322
Lasst mich ruhen S317
Ihr Glocken von Marling S328
Verlassen S336
Blume und Duft S324
Freudvoll und leidvoll II S280bis
Angiolin dal biondo crin S269/2
Go not, happy day S335

Felix Mendelssohn
Volkslied Op. 63 No. 5
Maiglöckchen und die Blümelein Op. 63 No. 6

Nicholas Daniel, oboe
Julius Drake, piano

Music by Robert & Clara Schumann

One of Britain’s best-known musicians, Nicholas Daniel OBE won the BBC Young Musician competition in 1980, after which he quickly established his career, travelling all over the world, broadcasting widely, and making many critically acclaimed recordings of both new and familiar music. This programme – with the very distinguished painist, Julius Drake – features a wide selection of chamber music by Robert Schumann, alongside the Three Romances by Clara Schumann. At the time these pieces were written, there was a rapidly growing interest in amateur music making in the home, fuelled by a burgeoning middle class. Brahms, Schumann, and Mendelssohn all contributed significantly to the array of works published for this market, and it was quite normal practise for parts to be substituted for whatever instruments happened to be available. So, although the Three Romances, Op. 94 are the only works originally composed for the oboe, the programme is not only musically rewarding in its own right, but also in keeping with what the Schumanns would have considered normal practise.

Miah Pearson soprano,
Stuart Jackson, tenor
Julius Drake, piano

Programme:
Felix Mendelssohn
Altdeutsches Lied Op. 57 No. 1
Hirtenlied Op. 57 No. 2
Suleika Op. 57 No. 3
O Jugend Op. 57 No. 4
Venetianisches Gondellied Op. 57 No. 5
Wanderlied Op. 57 No. 6
Erster Verlust Op. 99 No. 1
Die Sterne schau’n in stiller Nacht Op. 99 No. 2
Lieblingsplatzchen Op. 99 No. 3
Das Schifflein Op. 99 No. 4
Wenn sich zwei Herzen scheiden Op. 99 No. 5
Es weiss und rät es doch keiner Op. 99 No. 6

Franz Liszt

Oh! quand je dors S282/2
Enfant, si j’étais roi S283/2
S’il est un charmant gazon S284/2
Comment, disaient-ils S276/2
Quand tu chantes bercée S306a

Interval

Franz Liszt
Ich liebe dich S315
In Liebeslust S318
Gebet S331
Der Glückliche S334
Bist du S277
Jugendglück S323

Fanny Mendelssohn
Allnächtlich im Traume
Verlust
Warum sind den die Rosen so blass Op. 1 No. 3
Suleika und Hatem

Roderick Williams, baritone
Julius Drake, piano
Charlotte Blake Alston, narrator
Cristina Garcia Martin, visual artist

British baritone Roderick Williams’s “rich, burnished” voice imbues “myriad colorful nuances” (New York Times) in this recital with peerless collaborative pianist Julius Drake. Enhancing the duo’s performance of Brahms’s song cycle Die schöne Magelone are drawings by Amsterdam-based illustrator Cristina Garcia Martin and narration by internationally acclaimed storyteller Charlotte Blake Alston.

Ian Bostridge, tenor
Julius Drake, piano

Programme:
​​SCHUBERT
Das Heimweh, D. 456
Sehnsucht, D. 879
Im Freien, D. 880
Bei dir allein, D. 866
Der Wanderer an den Mond, D. 870
Das Zügenglöcklein, D. 871
Die Perle, D. 466
Freiwilliges Versinken, D. 700
Der zürnenden Diana, D. 707
Lied des gefangenen Jägers, D. 843
Normans Gesang, D. 846
Der Wanderer, D. 493
Hippolits Lied, D. 890
An die Laute, D. 905
An mein Klavier, D. 342
Der Jüngling an der Quelle, D. 300
Wie Ulfru Fischt, D. 525
Schlaflied, D. 527
An die Freunde, D. 654
Das Lied im Grünen, D. 917
Der Einsame, D. 800
Im Abendrot, D. 799

Ian Bostridge, tenor
Julius Drake, piano

Programme:
​​SCHUBERT
Das Heimweh, D. 456
Sehnsucht, D. 879
Im Freien, D. 880
Bei dir allein, D. 866
Der Wanderer an den Mond, D. 870
Das Zügenglöcklein, D. 871
Die Perle, D. 466
Freiwilliges Versinken, D. 700
Der zürnenden Diana, D. 707
Lied des gefangenen Jägers, D. 843
Normans Gesang, D. 846
Der Wanderer, D. 493
Hippolits Lied, D. 890
An die Laute, D. 905
An mein Klavier, D. 342
Der Jüngling an der Quelle, D. 300
Wie Ulfru Fischt, D. 525
Schlaflied, D. 527
An die Freunde, D. 654
Das Lied im Grünen, D. 917
Der Einsame, D. 800
Im Abendrot, D. 799

Places & Times
March 22, 2025 – Arrival & Registration
March 23 & 24, 2025 – 1st round | Orchestra Center NRW March
25 & 26, 2025 – 2nd round | Orchestra Center NRW
March 27, 2025 – 3rd round | Orchestra Center NRW
March 28, 2025 – Rehearsal day with the orchestra
March 29, 2025 – Orchestra finale with the Dortmund Philharmonic in the Dortmund Concert Hall
March 30, 2025 – Matinée of the prizewinners | Kokerei Hansa, Dortmund

Jury
Ian Fountain (Chairman of the Jury), Great Britain
Ingeborg Danz, Germany
Julius Drake, Great Britain
Kevin Kenner, USA
Mi-Joo Lee, South Korea/Germany
Pietro de Maria, Italy
Marianna Shirinyan, Armenia

Places & Times
March 22, 2025 – Arrival & Registration
March 23 & 24, 2025 – 1st round | Orchestra Center NRW March
25 & 26, 2025 – 2nd round | Orchestra Center NRW
March 27, 2025 – 3rd round | Orchestra Center NRW
March 28, 2025 – Rehearsal day with the orchestra
March 29, 2025 – Orchestra finale with the Dortmund Philharmonic in the Dortmund Concert Hall
March 30, 2025 – Matinée of the prizewinners | Kokerei Hansa, Dortmund

Jury
Ian Fountain (Chairman of the Jury), Great Britain
Ingeborg Danz, Germany
Julius Drake, Great Britain
Kevin Kenner, USA
Mi-Joo Lee, South Korea/Germany
Pietro de Maria, Italy
Marianna Shirinyan, Armenia

Places & Times
March 22, 2025 – Arrival & Registration
March 23 & 24, 2025 – 1st round | Orchestra Center NRW March
25 & 26, 2025 – 2nd round | Orchestra Center NRW
March 27, 2025 – 3rd round | Orchestra Center NRW
March 28, 2025 – Rehearsal day with the orchestra
March 29, 2025 – Orchestra finale with the Dortmund Philharmonic in the Dortmund Concert Hall
March 30, 2025 – Matinée of the prizewinners | Kokerei Hansa, Dortmund

Jury
Ian Fountain (Chairman of the Jury), Great Britain
Ingeborg Danz, Germany
Julius Drake, Great Britain
Kevin Kenner, USA
Mi-Joo Lee, South Korea/Germany
Pietro de Maria, Italy
Marianna Shirinyan, Armenia

Places & Times
March 22, 2025 – Arrival & Registration
March 23 & 24, 2025 – 1st round | Orchestra Center NRW March
25 & 26, 2025 – 2nd round | Orchestra Center NRW
March 27, 2025 – 3rd round | Orchestra Center NRW
March 28, 2025 – Rehearsal day with the orchestra
March 29, 2025 – Orchestra finale with the Dortmund Philharmonic in the Dortmund Concert Hall
March 30, 2025 – Matinée of the prizewinners | Kokerei Hansa, Dortmund

Jury
Ian Fountain (Chairman of the Jury), Great Britain
Ingeborg Danz, Germany
Julius Drake, Great Britain
Kevin Kenner, USA
Mi-Joo Lee, South Korea/Germany
Pietro de Maria, Italy
Marianna Shirinyan, Armenia

Places & Times
March 22, 2025 – Arrival & Registration
March 23 & 24, 2025 – 1st round | Orchestra Center NRW March
25 & 26, 2025 – 2nd round | Orchestra Center NRW
March 27, 2025 – 3rd round | Orchestra Center NRW
March 28, 2025 – Rehearsal day with the orchestra
March 29, 2025 – Orchestra finale with the Dortmund Philharmonic in the Dortmund Concert Hall
March 30, 2025 – Matinée of the prizewinners | Kokerei Hansa, Dortmund

Jury
Ian Fountain (Chairman of the Jury), Great Britain
Ingeborg Danz, Germany
Julius Drake, Great Britain
Kevin Kenner, USA
Mi-Joo Lee, South Korea/Germany
Pietro de Maria, Italy
Marianna Shirinyan, Armenia

Places & Times
March 22, 2025 – Arrival & Registration
March 23 & 24, 2025 – 1st round | Orchestra Center NRW March
25 & 26, 2025 – 2nd round | Orchestra Center NRW
March 27, 2025 – 3rd round | Orchestra Center NRW
March 28, 2025 – Rehearsal day with the orchestra
March 29, 2025 – Orchestra finale with the Dortmund Philharmonic in the Dortmund Concert Hall
March 30, 2025 – Matinée of the prizewinners | Kokerei Hansa, Dortmund

Jury
Ian Fountain (Chairman of the Jury), Great Britain
Ingeborg Danz, Germany
Julius Drake, Great Britain
Kevin Kenner, USA
Mi-Joo Lee, South Korea/Germany
Pietro de Maria, Italy
Marianna Shirinyan, Armenia

Places & Times
March 22, 2025 – Arrival & Registration
March 23 & 24, 2025 – 1st round | Orchestra Center NRW March
25 & 26, 2025 – 2nd round | Orchestra Center NRW
March 27, 2025 – 3rd round | Orchestra Center NRW
March 28, 2025 – Rehearsal day with the orchestra
March 29, 2025 – Orchestra finale with the Dortmund Philharmonic in the Dortmund Concert Hall
March 30, 2025 – Matinée of the prizewinners | Kokerei Hansa, Dortmund

Jury
Ian Fountain (Chairman of the Jury), Great Britain
Ingeborg Danz, Germany
Julius Drake, Great Britain
Kevin Kenner, USA
Mi-Joo Lee, South Korea/Germany
Pietro de Maria, Italy
Marianna Shirinyan, Armenia

Places & Times
March 22, 2025 – Arrival & Registration
March 23 & 24, 2025 – 1st round | Orchestra Center NRW March
25 & 26, 2025 – 2nd round | Orchestra Center NRW
March 27, 2025 – 3rd round | Orchestra Center NRW
March 28, 2025 – Rehearsal day with the orchestra
March 29, 2025 – Orchestra finale with the Dortmund Philharmonic in the Dortmund Concert Hall
March 30, 2025 – Matinée of the prizewinners | Kokerei Hansa, Dortmund

Jury
Ian Fountain (Chairman of the Jury), Great Britain
Ingeborg Danz, Germany
Julius Drake, Great Britain
Kevin Kenner, USA
Mi-Joo Lee, South Korea/Germany
Pietro de Maria, Italy
Marianna Shirinyan, Armenia

Places & Times
March 22, 2025 – Arrival & Registration
March 23 & 24, 2025 – 1st round | Orchestra Center NRW March
25 & 26, 2025 – 2nd round | Orchestra Center NRW
March 27, 2025 – 3rd round | Orchestra Center NRW
March 28, 2025 – Rehearsal day with the orchestra
March 29, 2025 – Orchestra finale with the Dortmund Philharmonic in the Dortmund Concert Hall
March 30, 2025 – Matinée of the prizewinners | Kokerei Hansa, Dortmund

Jury
Ian Fountain (Chairman of the Jury), Great Britain
Ingeborg Danz, Germany
Julius Drake, Great Britain
Kevin Kenner, USA
Mi-Joo Lee, South Korea/Germany
Pietro de Maria, Italy
Marianna Shirinyan, Armenia

This first Recital Hall concert of the Mahler Festival focuses on Mahler’s most beautiful songs. Today’s most important Lieder accompanist, pianist Julius Drake, flanks vocalists he admires. Scottish mezzo-soprano Catriona Morison is praised for her refined yet full voice. ‘A real star,’ according to the Times. You will also hear baritone James Newby, winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Award. He recently released the acclaimed album Fallen to Dust.

Julius Drake chose a series of songs full of drama and poetry for Morison and Newby. That poetry sometimes comes from Mahler himself, as today in Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. ‘When my dearest marries’ is the name of one of the songs. The lady in question did not marry Mahler, who experienced this as a ‘glowing knife’ in his heart. He processed all his frustration and sorrow in this stirring song cycle. In the five lyrical Rückert-Lieder, he shows a happier side.

During the Mahler Festival, the Recital Hall is dedicated to Mahler’s most beautiful songs. Perhaps today’s most important Lieder accompanist, pianist Julius Drake, flanks vocalists he admires. Today, these are mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska and bass-baritone Jusung Gabriel Park.

In Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Mahler chose his favourite texts from the very old German collection of the same name. He composed twelve sometimes fairy-tale-like songs. Love, faith, heroic deeds… everything floats by. They are sung by Macedonian-Canadian Ema Nikolovska and South Korean Jusung Gabriel Park. The latter is making his Amsterdam debut. Drake chooses to have some songs sung by the soloists together. ‘Even though they are not necessarily written as such, there are often clearly two characters speaking,’ he said in Preludium. ‘And as a duet they work really beautifully.’

The Recital Hall is dedicated to Mahler’s most beautiful songs during the Mahler Festival. Perhaps the most important song accompanist of the moment, pianist Julius Drake, flanks his favourite vocalists. Today, these are Feride Büyükdenktaş and Stuart Jackson. Together they sing the moving Das Lied von der Erde, in Mahler’s own version for two vocalists and piano.

Six narrative movements make up Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. He based the songs on texts about nature, death and life. He used ancient Chinese texts in German translation. A ‘drinking song on the earthly vale of tears’ is the start of a stirring series of reflections on farewell and new beginnings. Das Lied von der Erde was written for two voices. Today you will hear Feride Büyükdenktaş, a Turkish mezzo-soprano who has already shone on the major opera stages of Vienna, Stuttgard and Istanbul. British tenor Stuart Jackson gets jubilant reviews at home, and is now more and more often singing across the globe.

The Recital Hall is dedicated to Mahler’s most beautiful songs during the Mahler Festival. Perhaps today’s most important Lieder accompanist, pianist Julius Drake, flanks his favourite vocalists. Today, you hear British mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, praised by critics for her charisma and clarity. You will also hear young tenor Laurence Kilsby, the 2022 winner of the Wigmore Hall’s International Song Competition.

Mahler’s moving Kindertotenlieder are set to texts by Friedrich Rückert. This song cycle deals with coping with the death of two of the poet’s children. Some years after its completion, Mahler himself lost his daughter. Julius Drake had already regularly performed the Kindertotenlieder with Fleur Barron. ‘Fleur has such an extraordinary voice,’ he said in Preludium.’ A mezzo, but when she sings, you can hear a contra-alt, very special.’ Drake also chose several pieces from Des Knaben Wunderhorn for this recital. For these works, Mahler based himself on old German folk song texts. Mahler drew from the same textbook before. Today, Barron and tenor Laurence Kilsby perform the Lieder und Gesänge, a song cycle Mahler wrote in his twenties.

For four days, the Recital Hall is dedicated to Mahler’s most beautiful songs. A special recital is dedicated to his wife Alma, combining pieces by her with those by friends. Perhaps today’s most important Lieder accompanist, pianist Julius Drake, flanks his favourite vocalists during all these concerts. Today you will hear French soprano Axelle Fanyo, a ‘true storyteller’ according to Forum Opéra. She shares the stage with one of the greatest Dutch talents, baritone Raoul Steffani.

Austrian Alma Maria Schindler was introduced to her future husband, Gustav Mahler, by her composition teacher Zemlinsky. Under Mahler’s name, she would become known – but never primarily as a composer. Mahler did not want his wife to write any more music, and Alma herself also had doubts about her work. Although most of it has been lost, her late-romantic, often melancholic songs are still widely performed. Here today in the Recital Hall, they alternate with pieces by friends and acquaintances. Axelle Fanyo and Raoul Steffani perform songs by Ernst Krenek, Mahler’s son-in-law. You will also hear works by Berg, Korngold and Stravinsky.

Katrīna Paula Felsberga, Soprano
Julius Drake, Piano

Programme:
Friedrich Hölderlin
Selected Poems and Texts
Reading in German

Music include settings by Peter Cornelius, Hans Pfitzner, Paul Hindemith, Hanns Eisler, Viktor Ullmann, Benjamin Britten

Until the beginning of the 20th century, few com­posers engaged with the works of Friedrich Hölderlin— it almost seems as if music had to shed tonality and for­ mal restraints to come to terms with the expressive power of the poet’s language. In this Lied und Lyrik pro­gram, Katrīna Paula Felsberga and Julius Drake explore the wide­ranging musical afterlife of Hölderlin in the “free future century” he envisioned in his 1806 Hymn to Freedom. The texts will be heard in musical settings and readings.

Ian Bostridge, tenor
Julius Drake, piano

Programme:
Songs after poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

HUGO WOLF (1860–1903)

Gesänge des Harfners aus Goethes „Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre“
Wer sich der Einsamkeit ergibt
An die Türen will ich schleichen
Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen aß

Grenzen der Menschheit
Prometheus
Ganymed
Der Rattenfänger
Wandrers Nachtlied

FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797–1828)

An den Mond, D 259
Ganymed, D 544
Wandrers Nachtlied I, D 224

Gesänge des Harfners I-III, D 478
Wer sich der Einsamkeit ergibt
Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen aß
An die Türen will ich schleichen

Wandrers Nachtlied II, D 768
Der Musensohn, D 764
An die Entfernte, D 765
Am Flusse, D 766
Willkommen und Abschied, D 767
An den Mond, D 296

Christoph Prégardien, tenor
Julius Drake, piano

Programme:
FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797–1828)

Lieder after poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Am Fluße, D 766
An die Entfernte, D 756
Trost in Tränen, D 120

Gesänge des Harfners I-III, D 478
Wer sich der Einsamkeit ergibt
Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen aß
An die Türen will ich schleichen

Auf dem See, D 543
Geistes-Gruß, D 142
Prometheus, D 674
Wandrers Nachtlied II, D 768
Erlkönig, D 328

Schäfers Klagelied, D 121
Ganymed, D 544
Versunken, D 715
An Mignon, D 161
Erster Verlust, D 226
Jägers Abendlied, D 368
Wandrers Nachtlied I, D 224
Rastlose Liebe, D 138
Meeres Stille, D 216
An Schwager Kronos, D 369
An den Mond, D 259
Willkommen und Abschied, D 767