Sebastian Deken

One of the piano's most lyrical contemporary proponents, Murray Perahia was born in New York City. After first sitting down at the piano at the age of four, he entered Mannes College at 17, later graduating with degrees in conducting and composition. At the same time, Perahia spent his summers in Marlboro, Vermont, collaborating with musicians including Rudolf Serkin, Pablo Casals and the members of the Budapest Quartet; he also studied with Mieczyslaw Horszowski. Upon winning the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1972, Perahia gave his first concert at the Aldeburgh Festival a year later, where he met and worked with Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, subsequently accompanying the latter in many lieder recitals. Perahia became co-artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival in 1981, a position he held for eight years; his recordings include the complete concertos of Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin.

The Kreuzleich by Heinrich “Frauenlob” von Meissen is over 700 years old, making it one of the oldest surviving oratorios of the German cultural sphere. Known up to now only as a silent fragment of Meistersinger history, composer Karsten Gundermann, together with the multi-award-winning a cappella ensemble Octavians, brings it to life for our present time: Gundermann has revamped Frauenlob’s notated melodies and fragmentary manuscripts into a fascinating work for soloists, chamber choir, and orchestra, and the result is sensational! With their three countertenors and supported by the Akademische Orchestervereinigung Jena, the Octavians create a lively blend of age-old and new, of archaic sounds and orchestral colors sung and played at the highest level.