Julian Prégardien / Lieder Recital

»Once upon a time« are the opening words in a great many German fairy tales, and the Romantics in particular loved these fantastical stories about strange and mysterious events. There are numerous works in Robert Schumann’s oeuvre that feature the word »Märchen« or fairy tale in the title. German tenor Julian Prégardien and his accompanist Michael Gees now narrate a very special kind of Schumann fairy tale. In Schumann’s time, a soirée or chamber concert would have been far more open and improvised than is the case today, with a mixture of individual songs, piano works, and talking between pieces. Prégardien and Gees are keen to revive this tradition by breaking up the rigid lieder recital format, commenting on the songs by means of piano preludes and intermezzi, and establishing a sense of context by reciting selected poems.