Robert Schumann: Chorballaden

Eerie ballads and other dramas

»If we don’t move people at a deep level, why are we even making music?« asks the conductor Laurence Equilbey, who is making an impact around the world with her clever programmes and radical openness. Along with her fantastic Insula orchestra, which plays music from the classical and early-Romantic period on contemporary instruments – by heart, of course – she now presents a semi-staged performance of Robert Schumann’s moving ballads. And what a discovery! Together with a cast of exceptional soloists, Laurence Equilbey and her ensemble perform the chilling Romantic ballad »Vom Pagen und der Königstochter« as well as the psycho-political mini-drama »Des Sängers Fluch« about the dark secrets of a royal court. These two gems of the repertoire are flanked by thematically appropriate works by Ludwig van Beethoven.