Beethoven: songs and folksongs

Description

TENOR IAN BOSTRIDGE CELEBRATES BEETHOVEN’S 250TH ANNIVERSARY IN STYLE! English tenor Ian Bostridge has fascinated us for more than 20 years. His Lieder recitals leave no one indifferent, and his art of singing while speaking, or speaking while singing, reconnects with the great tradition of the Lied. This new recording by Ian Bostridge celebrates Beethoven’s 250th anniversary in style and once again places melody and poetry at the summit of music. Here he is reunited with Antonio Pappano, music director of Rome’s Accademia Santa Cecilia, also a formidable pianist and attentive chamber musician, violinist Vilde Frang, as well as cellist Nicolas Altstaedt. At the heart of this program of Beethoven songs performed by Ian Bostridge and Sir Antonio Pappano is the song cycle An die ferne Geliebte (To the Distant Beloved). Bostridge describes it as “the distillation of Beethoven as lover.” Among the other pieces are the highly lyrical “Adelaide,” the dark “In questa tomba oscura,” and a selection of Beethoven’s folk-song compositions from the British Isles, which bring in violinist Vilde Frang and cellist Nicolas Altstaedt. “When we all play together,” says Pappano, “it’s like a family making music at home.”