What better way to wrap up a Season dedicated to Music and Poetry than by presenting a work that represents maybe better than any other, the intimate fusion of music and poetry: Franz Schubert’s song cycle for voice and piano, Winterreise, Winter Journey, that the Austrian composer wrote in 1827? Despite a very prolific creation, including symphonies, vocal works and even operas, Franz Schubert remains famous today for his renewal of the genre of the lied: songs, inspired by poetical texts. He adapted poems by many of his contemporaries such as Goethe, Heine, Rückert; yet his probably most popular works until today remain his adaptations of poems from Wilhelm Müller, which he used for the cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise.
When looking at the content of the poems, the 24 lieder of the Winterreise, that will be performed tonight, tell the story of a young man, who was not allowed to marry the woman he chose. Yet, already the opening verses announce a much wider programme than just another broken heart story: “I came here a stranger, As a stranger I depart”.

In fact, the journey, the composer and the poet are embarking the listener on is only apparently related to the theme of impossible love.  The cold winter is not only the setting for a sad love story, but, as the first words indicate, the metaphor of the alienation between the Human Being and his Experience on Earth. The core romantic theme of the human aspiration is displayed as well as the central role of artistic creation when trying to come to terms with the reality of existence. The fusion of music and poetry plays in this regard a central role in finding an answer to the winter of life.

To perform this central piece of the romantic repertoire, TCA Abu Dhabi Classics was able to invite Star Baritone Matthias Goerne to the Capital for a one night only concert. The German singer has reached international fame by performing the Lied repertoire Schubert brought to perfection and is considered today the most prominent performer to take his public on the nearly two century old journey of poetry and music.

Programme

Franz Schubert: Winterreise. A Cycle of Songs from Wilhelm Müller. Op. 89. First Part  (Lied I–XII). February 1827. Second Part (Lied XIII–XXIV). October 1827
• Gute Nacht (Good Night)
• Die Wetterfahne (The Weathervane)
• Gefrorne Tränen (Frozen Tears)
• Erstarrung (Numbness)
• Der Lindenbaum (The Linden Tree)
• Wasserflut (Flood Water)
• Auf dem Flusse (On the River)
• Rückblick (A Look Backward)
• Irrlicht (Will o’ the Wisp)
• Rast (Rest)
• Frühlingstraum (Dreams of Spring)
• Einsamkeit (Solitude)
• Die Post (The Post)
• Der greise Kopf (The Old Man’s Head)
• Die Krähe (The Crow)
• Letzte Hoffnung (Last Hope)
• Im Dorfe (In the Village)
• Der stürmische Morgen (The Stormy Morning)
• Täuschung (Illusion)
• Der Wegweiser (The Signpost)
• Das Wirtshaus (The Inn)
• 22. Mut! (Courage)
• 23. Die Nebensonnen (The False Suns)
• 24. Der Leiermann (The Hurdy-Gurdy Man)

May 16, 2016 08:00 PM – 09:45 PM