English baritone Roderick Williams, the “most engaging of performers” who “has one hanging on every word” (The Evening Standard), joins pianist Julius Drake in an interdisciplinary performance involving animation, acting, Beethoven and Brahms.
Like the rest of the Vocal Series, this performance in January 2020 began with Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte, using it as the springboard into Brahms’ gorgeous Die Schöne Magelone, a song cycle which tells the legend of Count Peter of Provence and his search for Magelone the Fair. Brahms asked for portions of the story to be read between each of his songs; The New Yorker's Adam Gopnik reads Roderick Williams’ English translation of the text, accompanied by evocative animated short films by noted designer and filmmaker Cristina Garcia Martin.
BEETHOVEN: An die Ferne Geliebte, Op. 98
BRAHMS: 15 Romances on L. Tieck's Die Schöne Magelone, Op. 33