A rarely-heard masterwork by Johannes Brahms comes to Cornell this weekend, brought by two guest artists soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon and pianist Ryan McCullough. Brahms’ only song-cycle ‘Die schöne Magelone’, inspired by the song cycles of Schubert and Schumann, sets to music 15 of the 18 poems from German Romantic poet Ludwig Tieck’s Liebesgeschichte der schönen Magelone und des Grafen Peter von Provence (1797) [Love Story of the beautiful Magelone and Duke Peter of Provence]. In a full-length concert on Saturday evening, 9/23 in Sage Chapel (8pm), they will perform the full cycle with interleaved narration, telling the troubadour tale that underlies Brahms’s creation. On Friday evening, 9/22 at the A. D. White house (5pm) they will present excerpts at the Historical Keyboard Salon with Assistant Professor of German Studies Erik Born, discussing the genesis of the work, its relation to 19th-century German medievalism, and Brahms’ creative vision for it.
Ryan and Lucy, the remarkable musical duo, earned applause from their audience for their musically enchanting, deeply enriching, and emotional performances. Learn more about their artistic projects on the duo's website.
Both events are free and open to the public.
