EVGENY KISSIN & MATTHIAS GOERNE

Welcome to the 19th edition of Klarafestival! The theme Crossroads - Come Together keenly evokes the convergence of the audience, the artists and their inspiring concerts. A meeting place where the leading lights of international classical music enter into dialogue with challenging creations and young talent. 

The inspiration for this edition comes from festival artist Claron McFadden. As she told us in an interview, “I stand at a crossroads where styles and generations cross, meet, and collide”. This notion forms the core of the programme. We hope you will enjoy Klarafestival as a sanctuary of hope, polyphony and beauty in all its forms. As a place where the familiar takes on new meaning and where new experiences take you by surprise. 

Jan Raes, chairman

Joost Fonteyne, intendant

Chantal Pattyn, manager Klara

Nehmt mit meine Tränen und Seufzer,

Ihr Lieder wehmütig und trüb!

The German Lied was the perfect outlet for the 19th-century composer to transform the most paradoxical human feelings into an artistic language through poetry and sound. ‘Take my tears and sighs with you, melancholy and doleful songs’ – the words of Heine’s poem might have been written especially for dozens of composers in the German-speaking world. In their evening of Lieder, Matthias Goerne and Jevgeni Kissin present two of the most prominent art song composers of the German Romantic period: Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. The works on their programme are mainly settings of poems by Heinrich Heine, August von Platen and Georg Friedrich Daumer.

Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann considered the Lied to be the ‘eigentlichen Abdruck meines Ichs’ (the true imprint of my self). Nonetheless, it was some time before he tackled the genre. Apart from a few songs written in 1827-28, Schumann concentrated mainly on piano music for the first ten years of his career as a composer. As late as 1839, he wrote to his friend Hermann Hirschback that he considered music for the human voice to be inferior to instrumental music. In 1840, however, Schumann wrote more than a hundred songs. How can we explain such an astonishing change of heart? The breakthrough in his love affair with Clara doubtless played a part. Since 1837, Robert had been engaged to Clara Wieck, the daughter of his piano teacher Friedrich Wieck. Friedrich opposed the relationship, however, believing that his talented daughter deserved a better partner. In 1840, Robert and Clara were finally able to marry after winning a court case against Friedrich.

The year 1840 has a special place in Schumann’s biography as the Liederjahr. In a letter to Clara, Schumann wrote that composing songs was a ‘lang entbehrte Seligkeit’ (a delight I have long gone without). In many cases, he only needed a few days to compose these magnificent pieces. Some of his song cycles from 1840 are among the most significant in the whole genre: Liederkreis Op. 39, Frauenliebe und -leben Op. 42, and Dichterliebe Op. 48. Schumann wrote the latter cycle, based on poems by Heinrich Heine, between 24 May and 1 June. Initially there were twenty songs in the cycle, but after careful consideration, Schumann decided to scrap four of them.

Schumann selected the poems from Heine’s Lyrisches Intermezzo, the second part of his Buch der Lieder (1827). That collection contains no fewer than 237 poems describing love in all its complexity. ‘Because love has an almost religious function in the Buch der Lieder, as the only anchor in the darkness of existence, the poet initially venerates his beloved as a saint but then lashes out at her with his words when she does not fulfil the ideal in his mind. This is the very progression we find in the song cycle Dichterliebe’, the musicologist Susan Youens writes. Indeed, whereas the first songs in Dichterliebe are still bathed in bliss, doubts creep in that lead to rage, disillusionment and bitterness.

Schumann expresses the evolution of these emotions through the sequence of keys in the song cycle. Whereas the songs in the first part are mainly written in major keys, we hear more minor keys in the second part. The voice and piano in Dichterliebe are an absolute match for each other, with the instrument doing more than merely accompanying the voice. The piano part drives the narrative forwards, comments on the emotions and even adds to them in the many postludes. Schumann doubtlessly intends the merging of voice and piano as a symbol for the unity of marriage.

In this recital, Matthias Goerne will perform two songs that Schumann scrapped from the original Dichterliebe but later included in other collections. ‘Mein Wagen rollet langsam’ was published in 1852, in the collection 4 Gesänge Op. 142, and ‘Es leuchtet meine Liebe’ was published in 1854 in the collection 5 Lieder und Gesänge Op. 127.

Johannes Brahms

Robert and Clara Schumann met Johannes Brahms in 1853. They were immediately impressed by the talented young composer. ‘Neue Bahnen’, an article full of praise that Robert wrote in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, launched Brahms’ career. After Robert’s death in 1856, Clara and Brahms kept up a close bond as both friends and artists.

Whereas Brahms is mainly associated with orchestral works and chamber music today, he also wrote a rich oeuvre of Lieder, publishing 190 solo songs over 43 years. The fact that the self-critical Brahms took the genre seriously is clear from the large number of Lieder whose manuscripts he destroyed, refusing to allow their publication. Brahms selected poems by less famous authors as well as works by the great German masters, a practice for which he was often criticised. Nevertheless, these allegedly ‘second-class’ poems resulted in masterly songs, such as the 9 Lieder und Gesänge Op. 32 from 1864. This collection of Lieder combines poems by two authors, August von Platen and Georg Friedrich Daumer. That he had a high opinion of the poetry is clear from the fact that the names of the authors also take pride of place on the cover of the first edition. The contents of this collection show great similarities with Schumann’s Dichterliebe. Brahms highlights various aspects of love: hope, despair and the agony of unrequited love. Although he did not create a clear narrative line – something that is also more difficult in a combination of works by two poets – an underlying evolution can be perceived.

Gustav Jenner, Brahms’ only student, noted in his memoirs how his teacher translated the message of a poem into music. The structure of the poem was reflected in that of the song. Brahms recited the poem aloud so that he could incorporate the rhythm of the text into the melody as well as possible. It is striking that Brahms also leaves many pauses in the melody. In ‘Nicht mehr zu dir gehen’, Brahms interrupts the musical line to express the protagonist’s despair. Jenner also noted that Brahms used harmony as an expressive tool. Brahms might deliberately avoid confirming the key or write unusual harmonic progressions such as those in ‘Meerfahrt’ Op. 96 No. 4.

In the anthologies Sechs Lieder Op. 85 (1882) and Vier Lieder Op. 96 (1886), Brahms again combined the works of various poets, including Heine, Daumer, Siegfried Kapper, Emanuel Geibel and Carl von Lemcke. Goerne and Kissin have selected songs that are based on poems by Heinrich Heine. The descriptions of nature as reflections of the human soul are typical of the Romantic period.

Frederic Delmotte, translated by Helen White

Evgeny Kissin

Even before he turned 18, Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin had achieved international fame with various concert series in Europe. Today he is known worldwide for his lyrical and poetic interpretations of the classical-romantic piano repertoire, performing both solo and with orchestra. As a soloist he has worked with almost all the major orchestras and with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta and Sir Simon Rattle. Kissin has received numerous prestigious awards for his musicianship, including honorary doctorates from various universities and conservatories, and several Grammy Awards for his recordings.

Matthias Goerne 

The German baritone Matthias Goerne is considered one of the most important contemporary performers of the Lied repertoire. For performances he invariably collaborates with renowned pianists such as Alfred Brendel, Vladimir Ashkenazi and Daniil Trifonov. As an opera singer he has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, the Opéra National de Paris and the Wiener Staatsoper in roles by Wagner, Berg, Strauss and Bartók. For Harmonia Mundi, Goerne has recorded material such as a collection of Schubert songs. More recently he has also released works by Wagner, Mahler and Brahms. His recordings have received prestigious awards, including a Gramophone Award, a Diapason d'Or de l'Année and five Grammy nominations.