Our season-long exploration of the influence of Beethoven on the song cycle continues with the “series motto” along with the magnum opus of Hugo Wolf, the Italienisches Liederbuch.
This cycle of 46 songs in two volumes was composed over 6 years, and sets, mostly, the short rispetto texts of poet Paul Heyse. Traditionally, the cycle is sung by alternating male and female voices: the idealism of the male songs contrasts sharply with the more grounded, sometimes tart, practicality of the female. Amanda Majeski, whose “well-rounded soprano...is so warm and glorious, the singing so outstanding, that she leaves no emotions unstirred” (The Financial Times) joins the “effortlessly captivating” (Montreal Gazette) bass-baritone Philippe Sly and the incomparable pianist Julius Drake.