Two composers, late-blooming servants and visionaries of the art of song, are presented in this recital by Lenia Zafeiropoulou and Thodoris Tzovanakis.
Winter Words by Benjamin Britten, set to poetry by Thomas Hardy, and the songs of Hugo Wolf on verses by Eduard Mörike.
In their musical workshop, Britten and Wolf distil the poets’ words with the fervour of a mad inventor. Their scores, though intricately crafted, capture a gesture of astonishing physicality, imitating the ever-unequal yet always harmonised rhythms of nature. Fearless, both speak of the great riddles of existence: of enchanting and ephemeral human passion; of the double-edged knife of consciousness; of the transcendent, which may well be an illusion. And they always preserve, like a spark at the summit of their music, irony and self-subversion. They serve us everything — even their dazzling virtuosity — with the grace and modesty of humour.
With Greek surtitles.
