Tribute to Byron for the 200th anniversary of his death (1788-1824)
Ian Bostridge tenor
Julius Drake piano
texts by Lord Byron read by Lucasta Miller
music Isaac Nathan, Johann Carl Gottfried Loewe, Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert, Ludwig van Beethoven,
Johannes Friedrich Fröhlich, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Fanny Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Hensel, Hugo Wolf
Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake, undoubtedly two of the most authoritative interpreters of the Lied repertoire, are called upon to follow in the footsteps of the eccentric and adventurous Romantic poet George Gordon Byron. Here are the Hebrew Melodies, poems written to accompany music by Isaac Nathan, but also set by the likes of Schumann, Loewe and Beethoven. Also Wilhelm Müller, the author of the texts for Schubert’s cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise, was well acquainted with the work of the English poet and, like him, supported the cause of Greek independence. If Byron’s verses flow through the history of 19th century Lied like a karst river, his presence will be acknowledged through a reading of his poems by the writer and literary critic Lucasta Miller.
