Schiffmann

Mark Padmore and fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout combine here to perform two of Schumann’s major cycles to words by Heine. They also throw in a selection of five Heine settings by the largely forgotten Franz Lachner (1803-90) from his Sängerfahrt (Singer’s Journey), which include the same text – ‘Im wunderschönen Monat Mai’ – with which Schumann’s Dichterliebe begins.

Icelandic bass-baritone Andri Björn Róbertsson, and pianist Ástríður Alda Sigurðardóttir, perform Robert Schumann’s Liederkreis op. 24 and Liederkreis op. 39, along with seven songs by the Icelandic composer Árni Thorsteinson. The two Liederkreise were composed during Schumann´s Year of Song in 1840. More than sixty years later Thorsteinson began publishing his songs, and they were instantly regarded as national treasures by the Icelandic nation. The programme invites the listener on a mysterious journey through nature, love, death and the unknown.