ConcertPulse
Dichterliebe recomposed
Konzerthaus Berlin, Werner-Otto-Saal (Berlin)
Love, loneliness and human finiteness: eternal themes run through the 16 songs of Robert Schumann's famous ‘Dichterliebe’ (Poet's Love) on poems by Heinrich Heine in a seemingly harmless folk song tone. In a double sense, everything is in flux here: the inner life of the protagonist, who vacillates between pain, doubt and happiness, and the mythical world of the past - symbolised by the Rhine, which winds its way through several verses. Composer Christian Jost took a close look at the work and embedded it in a completely newly composed soundscape. The harmonies and the spirit of Schumann are preserved, space and time are dissolved: ‘With Schumann and Heine, each individual song is self-contained. Each one is a frozen memory, the atmospheric condensation of a journey into the inner life of its protagonist, whose spiritual landscape unfolds before us piece by piece. In my work, the 16 songs of the cycle appear like islands, surrounded by the sounds and harmonies of which they are the nucleus and inspiration.’ Christian Jost does not tell a chronological story in his work. Supported by the projections of Katrin Bethge, individual windows into the human soul open up again and again in surprising ways. The Horenstein Ensemble already performed the world premiere in 2017.