MONTAGSSTÜCK XV: STARRY HEAVENS

PROGRAMM

Ludwig van Beethoven
Irish Songs
     1. Since grey beards inform us (WoO153, Nr. 4)
     2. The Pulse of an Irishman (WoO154, Nr. 4)

Ludwig van Beethoven
Schottische Lieder op. 108
     1. The Shepherd’s Song
     2. O sweet were the hours
     3. Come fill, fill, my good fellow
     4. O Mary, at thy window be
     5. Faithfu’ Johnie
     6. Sunset
     7. Bonny Laddie, Highland Laddie

Ludwig van Beethoven
Sechs Lieder von Gellert, op. 48
     1. Bitten
     2. Die Liebe des Nächsten
     3. Vom Tode
     4. Die Ehre Gottes aus der Natur
     5. Gottes Macht und Vorsehung
     6. Bußlied

Ludwig van Beethoven
Heiligenstädter Testament (Brief des Komponisten Ludwig van Beethoven an seine Brüder Kaspar Karl und Johann von 1802)

Ludwig van Beethoven
Streichquartett a-Moll, op. 132, 3. Satz
Canzona di ringraziamento. Molto adagio

Beethoven expressed the contractions of the day in his music more emphatically than any other. The current social circumstances provide us occasion in Montagsstück XV: The starry heavens, to present an extraordinary selection of his works, which expresses Beethoven’s convictions – on the relationship of the individual with society, the responsibility of people for one another, the possibility of a transcendence, and the doubts about it. In his six songs set to religious poems by Gellert, for example, but also in the folksong arrangements of Scottish texts. He gave words to these thoughts in his Heiligenstadt Testament letter, and the third movement of his String Quartet, Op. 132 is entitled “Holy song of thanksgiving of a convalescent to the Deity”. A key guiding principle for Beethoven was the self-responsibility of the individual – as he put it, while quoting Immanuel Kant: “The starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.”

Baritone Edwin Crossley-Mercer interprets a selection of the Scottish songs with a piano trio from the ranks of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester. The Praetorius Quartet, a fusion of Bayerisches Staatsorchester members, plays selections from String Quartet Op. 132. General Manager Nikolaus Bachler reads from the Heiligenstadt Testament, and Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen – celebrated worldwide as the future of youthful-dramatic singing and last enjoyed at the Bayerische Staatsoper as Elisabeth in Tannhäuser (2019) – sings the precious Gellert songs with Sophie Raynaud on piano.