This album was recorded in the Deutschlandfunk Kammermusiksaal in Cologne in July and October 2013.
Performer Biography
Julian Prégardien, a tenor born in 1984, is internationally successful in opera, concert, and Lied performances.
Album & Artwork
The album's title, "An die Geliebte" (To the Beloved), reflects the central theme of unrequited love in the Romantic era, which inspired many songs and poems.
Composition History
Beethoven's "An die ferne Geliebte" (To the Distant Beloved), published in 1816, is his only song cycle and the first through-composed song cycle in music history.
Interpretation
The album's compiler, Julian Prégardien, aimed to create a personal "circle of songs" that expresses more than a single Romantic song cycle would allow.
Historical Context
In the 19th century, love became a central factor for identity in a changing society, rising to prominence in the bourgeois society around 1800.
Performer Biography
Christoph Schnackertz, also born in 1984, is a piano accompanist who teaches Lied interpretation at the Cologne Musikhochschule.
You might also enjoy...
An die Geliebte
Brahms & Wolf: Lieder
Liszt: Songs for Bass Voice & Piano
Wolf, H.: Songs
Ives: Three Quarter-Tone Pieces / Five Take-Offs / Hallowe'En / Sunrise
