Robin Verheyen Starbound

Constantly in search of eclectic and meaningful programmes, the soprano Anna Prohaska here celebrates ‘life in death’. An ambitious programme, conceived with Robin Peter Müller and his ensemble La Folia, which takes us on a journey across the centuries and through many different countries, with French chansons of the Middle Ages (including one by Guillaume de Machaut), seventeenth-century Italian pieces by Luigi Rossi, Francesco Cavalli and Barbara Strozzi, German composers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Dietrich Buxtehude, Christoph Graupner, Franz Tunder) and the English luminaries Henry Purcell… plus John Lennon and Paul McCartney. A musical and spiritual quest that even takes in a detour to North America with a universally known song by Leonard Cohen.

Under the direction of Keno Weber, the Quilisma Jugendchor Springe presents the first complete recording of Gabriel Fauré’s (1845–1924) sacred works. After completing his academic education in 1865, Fauré was primarily active as a church musician and worked at the parish church „La Madeleine“ in Paris from 1877 to 1905. Almost all of his sacred works were written during this time, including his well-known Requiem. The voices of the young singers of the Quilisma Jugendchor provide insight into how the music may have sounded in the 19th century, performed by the boys’ choir at „La Madeleine“ under the direction of the composer himself.

There was no reason why Cock Robin shouldn't have been as big as anyone else around at the time. This collection showed a band that was bright, bubbly, and buoyant. "Thought You Were on My Side" oozed all the charm of a band in the studio for the first time. But it was the moody – and, to a degree, menacing – "When Your Heart Is Weak" that delivered their only hit Stateside. Certainly, things were not what they seemed.