Irrsal by Dietrich Henschel / Phillipe Herreweghe /Royal Flemish Philharmonic

Dietrich Henschel / Phillipe Herreweghe /Royal Flemish Philharmonic

Irrsal

Format: CD+DVD video
Label: Evil Penguin
UPC: 0608917720020
Catnr: EPRC 0014
Release date: 23 September 2013

2 CD+DVD video

Label
Evil Penguin

UPC
0608917720020

Catalogue number
EPRC 0014

Release date
23 September 2013

"Geen quote "

EPR-CLASSIC, 10-3-2014

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

About the album

Although Hugo Wolf (1860-1903) does not enjoy the present-day fame of his contemporary and friend Gustav Mahler, he graced art music with songs of an unusually concentrated intensity which are second to none. Wolf’s most poignant lieder were inspired by poet-priest Eduard Mörike, whose lifelong struggle with the (moral) turmoil caused by an early love affair appealed to similar sexual traumas in Wolf.

On this new production, acclaimed baritone Dietrich Henschel performs Wolf’s Mörike songs with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic conducted by Philippe Herreweghe, but he also stars in a film (included on DVD) which dramatizes the content of the songs, exploring the thin line between erotic and mystic love but ultimately depicting a tormented soul’s quest for redemption and release. Both the poems Wolf chose and the music he set to them conjure up a Wagnerian universe which has been situated, by film director Clara Pons, in the late summer lushness of Upper Austria, in a celebration of sensuality but also a premonition of pending decay...

Watch the documentary about the cd:
http://youtu.be/8IW3SWSA41s

A preview of the movie film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG_FYX7nevs

Irrsal - Forbidden Prayers. Dietrich Henschel als Interpret wunderbarer Orchesterlieder von Hugo Wolf und als Darsteller begleitender Filmszenen.

Wenn man versucht, das Wort IRRSAL in andere Sprachen zu übersetzen, wird einem die Vielfalt der Facetten bewußt, die in diesem selten benutzten, poetischen Ausdruck liegen. Eine Hilflosigkeit, eine Art Verlorenheit, Desorientierung verbunden mit einer moralischen Ratlosigkeit, gleichzeitig ein Ausdruck emotionaler Bedrängnis. Dieses Wort steht für das Befinden Eduard Mörikes, des deutschen Dichterfürsten, der in Seelennot, geriet, ausgelöst von einer rätselhaft-schönen Frau, mit der er ein Liebeserlebnis hatte.
Die Regisseurin Clara Pons greift Mörikes Geschichte auf und verknüpft diese mit Liedern von Hugo Wolf, der wiederholt Gedichte von Eduard Mörike vertonte.
Im Vordergrund des Filmes stehen die Orchesterlieder Hugo Wolfs, die mit filmischen Szenen begleitet werden. Sie erzählen die Geschichte eines Priesters, der sich im Netz des irdischen Liebesverlangens verstrickt und in Konflikt mit seinem Beruf und seinem Gewissen gerät. Der Bariton Dietrich Henschel, Spezialist für die Lieder Hugo Wolfs, ist Sänger der Live-Aufführung und zugleich Hauptdarsteller des Filmes.
Die Edition enthält eine CD mit 14 Orhchesterliedern, sowie den Film auf DVD (57 min)

Benché oggigiorno non goda della fama del suo contemporaneo e amico Gustav Mahler, Hugo Wolf ha arricchito la storia della musica colta con una produzione di Lieder che non sono secondi a nessuno, caratterizzati da un’intensità eccezionalmente densa. I Lieder più toccanti furono ispirati dai versi del poeta-sacerdote Eduard Mörike, la cui lotta permanente con la crisi (morale) causata da una storia d’amore giovanile stimolava analoghi traumi sessuali in Wolf.
In questa nuova registrazione, il celebre baritono berlinese Dietrich Henschel esegue i Lieder di Mörike di Wolf con la Royal Flemish Philharmonic diretta da Philippe Herreweghe, ma è anche protagonista di un film (incluso nel DVD) che drammatizza il contenuto dei Lieder, esplorando la linea sottile tra amore erotico e mistico ma in definitiva raffigurando la ricerca della redenzione e della liberazione di un’anima tormentata.

Artist(s)

Dietrich Henschel

Baritone Dietrich Henschel’s repertoire extends from the beginning of baroque opera to modern day avant-garde. He debuted at the Münchener Biennale in 1978 with the title role in Michaels Reverdy´s opera Le Precepteur. In his first and only permanent engagement, at the opera in Kiel, he performed classics such as Papageno, the count in Nozze de Figaro, Pelleas in Debussy’s Pelleas et Melisande, Monteverdi´s Orfeo and Henze´s Prinz von Homburg. Mr Henschel´s international career began with Busoni´s Doktor Faust in Lyon and Henze´s Prinz von Homburg at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Invitations followed from most of the important opera houses in Europe to sing in (amongst others) Rossini´s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Wagner´s Tannhäuser (Wolfram), Monteverdi´s Il ritorno d´Ulisse in Patria, Krenek´s Karl der V, Mozart´s Don Giovanni, Wagner´s "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Beckmesser), Berg´s Wozzeck, in Debussy’s Pelleas et Melisande (Golaud), and in Stawinsky´s The Rake’s Progress (Nick Shadow). His most recent engagements were the title roles in Enescu's Oedipe (La Monnaie) and Manfred Trojahn's Orest (De Nationale Opera). In addition to opera, a wide range of acclaimed recordings testifies to Dietrich Henschel’s success as a lied interpreter and an oratorio singer (with a special focus on the music of Bach). Mr. Henschel has sung with the world’s most famous orchestras, and his collaboration with great conductors such as Gardiner, Harnoncourt and Herreweghe is documented on many CD's and DVD's. Mr. Henschel is currently extending his artistic profile beyond his original vocal calling. Being a trained pianist and conductor, Dietrich Henschel has led several ensembles and orchestras this last decade, collaborating in particular with the Sinfonietta Leipzig. In a daring attempt to visualize the literary and emotional content of the lieder he sings, Mr. Henschel has also been exploring the intersection between art music, theatre, and the visual media. In 2010 he performed a staged version of Schubert’s Schwanengesang, which was featured in major European theatres such as La Monnaie, Theater an der Wien, and der Komische Oper. In his most ambitious project up to now, Mr. Henschel will be starring in Irrsal, a movie (directed by Clara Pons) which envisages the ramifications of love, guilt and sacrifice in the symphonic songs Hugo Wolf set to the haunting poems by Eduard Mörike. The Irrsal project – in which the movie is combined with a live performance of the songs – will be premiered in Düsseldorf and Rotterdam in September 2013. Dietrich Henschel has recently been signed to the Belgian record label Evil Penguin Classics, with whom he is scheduled to record the integral Wunderhorn songs by Gustav Mahler.

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Antwerp Symphony Orchestra

The Antwerp Symphony Orchestra is the symphony orchestra of Flanders and is based in the new Queen Elisabeth Hall in Antwerp. Under the baton of Chief Conductor Elim Chan (from the 2019-2020 season) and Principal Guest Conductor Philippe Herreweghe the orchestra wants to move and inspire a large and diverse audience through top-level concert experiences. Thanks to its own series of concerts in large venues, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra occupies a unique position in Flanders. The Antwerp Symphony Orchestra has also been a guest of some major foreign concert halls: the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Festspielhaus in Salzburg, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Suntory Hall and the Bunka Kaikan Hall in Tokyo, the Philharmonie of Cologne and Munich, the Palace...

Thanks to its own series of concerts in large venues, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra occupies a unique position in Flanders. The Antwerp Symphony Orchestra has also been a guest of some major foreign concert halls: the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Festspielhaus in Salzburg, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Suntory Hall and the Bunka Kaikan Hall in Tokyo, the Philharmonie of Cologne and Munich, the Palace of Art in Budapest and the National Grand Theatre of Beijing. International concert tours through Europe and Asia are a constant item on the yearly calendar.

Alongside its regular concerts, the orchestra attaches great value to developing educational and social projects, offering children, youngsters, and people with different social backgrounds the opportunity to get acquainted with the symphony orchestra from close quarters.

The Antwerp Symphony Orchestra collaborates with major classical music labels and several of the orchestra's CDs received acclaim by the professional press. The orchestra also curates its own label, focusing on the main orchestral repertoire, Belgian composers and contemporary music.

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Phillipe Herreweghe (conductor)

Composer(s)

Hugo Wolf

Together with Gustav Mahler, Hugo Wolf can be considered as one of the greatest composers of Late Romantic lieder. Both of them followed the tradition of Schubert and Schumann, but intensified the gerne with Wagner's techniques of text declamation and harmonic development. What makes Wolf's song cycles special, is the fact that often they are devoted to a single poet, like in his Mörike-Lieder (1889), Eichendorff-Lieder (1889) en Goethe-Lieder (1890). For each cycle, he spent a considerable time studying the text to create the best matching music. His accomodation of musical structure, harmonic subteties and pianistic texture are all inseperable from the lyrics. Partly due to his psychological sophistication his songs can be heard as miniature operas.
Even though he did start writing on several full-fledged operas, it never became a true succes. Only his opera Der Corregidor (1896) was completed. Things went downhill from there. In 1897, Wolf had a nervous breakdown as a consequence of a syphilis infection he had since his teens. After a failed suicide attempt, he was admitted to a clinic in Vienna. The somber Michelangelo-Lieder (1898) would become his last completed composition. Wolf died in 1903, three weeks before his 43st birthday.