Robert Schumann
»Sechs Gesänge« (1852/1994) based on texts by Titus Ullrich, Eduard Mörike, Paul Heyse, Wolfgang Müller
and Gottfried Kinkel for soprano and string quartet, transcribed by Aribert Reimann
Arnold Schönberg
String Quartet D major (1897)
Johannes Brahms
»Fünf Ophelia-Lieder« (1873/1997) based on
texts by William Shakespeare for soprano and string quartet transcribed by Aribert Reimann
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
»… oder soll es Tod bedeuten?« (1997) Eight songs and one fragment based on poems
by Heinrich Heine for soprano and string quartet, arranged and linked with six intermezzi by Aribert Reimann
- Juliane Banse Sopran
- Torsten Janicke violin
- Rose Kaufmann violin
- Martina Horejsi-Kiefer viola
- Joachim Griesheimer violoncello
Ophelia was one of the few dramatic figures who inspired Johannes Brahms to five touching songs. Robert Schumann also conjures up the image of the drowning Ophelia in the first of his ‘Sechs Lieder’. In this programme – centring on arrangements of famous song cycles by Aribert Reimann – the soprano Juliane Banse moves not only on the wings of song, but also borne by the strings of the string quartet. Reimann’s feel for timbres and his many years of experience as a vocal accompanist coalesce in his transcriptions, which always make the ‘finer features’ of the song settings by Brahms, Schumann and Mendelssohn apparent.
