Graham Johnson & jonge liedzangers 1

Over the course of two evenings, we will be presenting four talented young singers who are on the verge of conquering the world's concert platforms. We heard them for the first time during a masterclass given by Felicity Lott and Graham Johnson in the northern German town of Lübeck, and were so impressed that we invited them to come and perform at deSingel. Graham Johnson immediately agreed to work with them again. On the first evening, Johnson will be escorting Lydia Teuscher and Norman Patzke through the Lieder world of Hugo Wolf (1860-1903). The forty-six Lieder from the 'Italienisches Liederbuch' are a culmination point, both of Wolf's oeuvre and of the entire German-language Lieder repertory. The aphoristic texts by Paul Heyse, translations of simple Italian folk poems, deal with the many facets of love. Like no other, Wolf was able to project himself into the emotions of the poet. He succeeded in expressing the subtlest nuances of mood through his music, in which the highly imaginative parts for piano are at the centre of the musical process. At the same time, he freed himself from the bonds of the words. Although vocal melody and piano are tightly interwoven, they also act independently of one another, entering into dialogue and commenting upon one another, thus giving expression to the things that remain unspoken in the texts themselves.