JOHANNES BRAHMS Excerpts from Quartets for choir and piano, op. 92 u. op. 112

GUSTAV MAHLER/CLYTUS GOTTWALD »Die zwei blauen Augen«, »Urlicht«

KAIJA SAARIAHO »Nuits, adieux«

FRANK MARTIN Excerpts from »Ariel Songs«

LILI BOULANGER »Soir sur la plaine«, »Hymne au soleil«

SWR Vokalensemble

Olga Wien Piano

Yuval Weinberg Conductor

Romantic calm, grisly figures, declarations of love by moonlight, melancholy in solitary darkness – the night has many faces, many connotations, many mysteries. It has inspired people to create magnificent works in all genres of art. The SWR vocal ensemble, with new principal conductor Yuval Weinberg, demonstrate the sheer magic of such nocturnal musical settings. Brahms's vocal quartets bring both idyllic declarations of love (»O schöne Nacht«) and eerie apparitions (»Nächtens«). Clytus Gottwald's choral arrangement of Mahler's »Urlicht« opens heaven's gates to the audience, and in »Nuits, adieux« Kaija Saariaho exploits the potential of the human voice to the full. The darkness of night ends with the sun on the horizon – sung with solemn reverence in Lili Boulanger's impressionistic masterpiece »Hymne au Soleil«.

A production of the SWR in cooperation with the Ludwigsburg Festival.