Lieder Recital: Gerhild Romberger & Manuel Lange

The Pharos Arts Foundation and the Goethe Institut Zypern present a Lieder Recital with contralto Gerhild Romberger and pianist Manuel Lange. Regarded as one of the leading classical singers in Germany, Gerhild Romberger has established an important career, with an extensive repertoire encompassing all major contralto and mezzo-soprano parts in the oratorio and concert literature of the Baroque, the Classical and Romantic periods, all the way through to the 20th century. For her recital in Cyprus, on 21 March, Gerhild will perform Schumann’s Liederkreis Lieder Op.39, Brahms’ Eight Songs Op.57, as well as Zwei Gesänge Op.91 for alto, piano and viola, with the kind participation of violist Diemut Poppen.

THE PROGRAMME:
Robert Schumann: Liederkreis, 12 songs for voice & piano, Op.39 (1840)
Johannes Brahms: Songs for voice & piano, Op.57 (1871)
Johannes Brahms: Zwei Gesänge for alto, viola and piano, Op.91 (1864-78)

Schumann described his Liederkreis, Op.39 song cycle as “my most Romantic music ever”. The poems were taken from Joseph Eichendorff's collection entitled Intermezzo. The texts are all set outdoors, often with direct references to nature, and each refers to travel, whether allegorically travelling to a beloved person or implying a physical journey– both of which were typical Romantic concepts. The songs are also highly Romantic in their expressive disposition, whether ecstatic or melancholy, mysterious or supernatural. Written and published in 1871, the Eight Songs, Op.57, venture into a realm of composition more comparable to Brahms’ instrumental and choral works than his earlier, and even later, Lieder. The songs are all set on texts by Georg Friedrich Daumer (1800-75), whose poems are linked by hot passion and sensuality, with little of the pastoral contemplation found in other texts chosen by Brahms. Op.91 comprises the only two obbligato Lieder Brahms composed. The songs were most likely written for Amalie Joachim, who gave up a promising career on the operatic stage when she married the famous violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim in 1863. They are believed to have been composed as a gift to the couple for the birth of their first child (named Johannes after Brahms, who was his godfather), with the intent of being performed by both parents.

GERHILD ROMBERGER contralto
Gerhild Romberger studied at the Academy of Music in Detmold, attended voice training classes with Heiner Eckels and completed her studies with courses under the professors of Lieder performance Mitsuko Shirai and Hartmut Höll.

As a mezzo-soprano, she has always concentrated on concert performances, her work focusing on Lieder recitals on a wide variety of themes, as well as on contemporary music. Her extremely extensive repertoire encompasses all the major contralto and mezzo-soprano parts in the oratorio and concert literature of the Baroque, the Classical and Romantic periods, all the way through to the 20th century. After a performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the Munich Philharmonie, the critics could not contain themselves: “…an impressive ensemble of soloists, led by Gerhild Romberger, who both technically and sensuously offers the fulfilment of all mezzo-soprano dreams” Michael Stallknecht, SZ, 19 Feb. 2013

Gerhild Romberger’s recent career highlights include concerts with Manfred Honeck, who invited her to perform in, among other works, Mahler’s symphonies, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis and the Grosse Messe by Walter Braunfels. In addition, she has collaborated with the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester and Riccardo Chailly, the Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra (in Schmidt’s Buch mit den sieben Siegeln and Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Thomas Hengelbrock), numerous concerts with the Orchester der Klangverwaltung under Enoch zu Guttenberg, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Herbert Blomstedt, under Kent Nagano at the Ingolstadt Festival (Dvořák’s Requiem), the NDR Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Hengelbrock, the WDR Symphony Orchestra and the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, and with the Berlin Philharmonic, under Gustavo Dudamel, among others.

She has opened the 2014/15 season with a tour with the Gewandhausorchester under Alan Gilbert, on which she was heard in Mahler’s Third and Ninth Symphonies in Leipzig, Lucerne, Berlin and at the BBC Proms in London. In addition, she is appearing in Munich in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, and with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra under Jonathan Nott in Tokyo in Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, with the RTVE Orchestra in Madrid, in Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Chorgemeinschaft Neubeuern choir conducted by Enoch zu Guttenberg, and with the Tonkünstler Orchestra under Andrès Orozco-Estrada in Bruckner’s Te deum.

MANUEL LANGE piano
Berlin-born pianist Manuel Lange studied his instrument with Oleg Maisenberg in Stuttgart and Hans Leygraf in Salzburg and Berlin. He also took song master-classes with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Aribert Reimann and Wolfram Rieger.

During his studies, Lange won the First Prize for piano accompaniment in the International Paula Salomon-Lindberg Song Competition "Das Lied", the Special Prize for best piano accompaniment at the Hilde Zadek Voice Competition in Passau and the Hanns Eisler prize at the Academy of Music "Hanns Eisler".

Following a six-year residence as solo répétiteur at Berlin's Komische Oper, he began, in 2005, working as a Song Repertoire Professor at the Berlin University of the Arts. In July 2010, Manuel Lange was appointed Professor of Lied Accompaniment and Lied Composition at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold.

In 2006, he collaborated with baritone Sebastian Noack in founding the Meisterlied Concert Series in Berlin, which is primarily dedicated to the German Romantic Lied.

Manuel Lange has appeared in concert with such renowned singers as Anne Schwanewilms, Mojca Erdmann, Maria Bengtsson, Sibylla Rubens, Stella Doufexis, Lothar Odinius, Jussi Myllys, Sebastian Noack, amongst others, in venues such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Dresden Semperoper, La Scala in Milan, the Opéra Comique in Paris, the Teatro del Liceo in Barcelona, the Théatre de la Monnaie in Brussels, the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg, the Kölner Philharmonie, the Frankfurt and the Musiikkitalo Helsinki, and in festivals such as Baden-Baden, Ruhrtriennale, Autumn Music Days in Bad Urach.

In July 2013, the label Capriccio has released a CD featuring Manuel Lange accompanying soprano Anne Schwanewilms on Schumann's Liederkreis Op.39 and the Mörike Lieder by Hugo Wolf.

Manuel Lange lives with his wife and two children in Berlin. He is the twin brother of composer Marius Felix Lange.

Tickets:
€15 / €10 Concessions & members of the Pharos Arts Foundation,
Box Office: Directly from the Foundation’s website www.pharosartsfoundation.org/ or Tel. 96669003 (Monday - Friday 10:00am-3:00pm)