05.05.2022

FLORIAN BOESCH sings Krenek's "Reisebuch aus den österreichischen Alpen"

Austrian baritone Florian Boesch is one of the world’s most respected Lieder singers, acclaimed on concert stages across the world for his disarming mix of psychological perceptiveness and captivating lyricism, and for the glowing golden timbre of his agile voice. He delivers performances that lodge long in the memory, highlighting new perspectives on even the most familiar of songs.

With Krenek's Liedzysklus Reisebuch aus den österreichischen Alpen, Florian Boesch can be heard together with Malcolm Martineau as part of his residency at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and at the Maifestspiele in Wiesbaden.

Krenek’s song cycle Reisebuch aus den österreichischen Alpen focuses once again on the intimate genre of the art song. Completed in 1929, the work is often described as Krenek’s throwing down the gauntlet against the radical modernism of colleagues such as Arnold Schoenberg – »to show that the old musical vocabulary has not been exhausted yet«, to quote the composer himself, who emigrated about ten years later from Nazi Germany to the USA. Anyone hearing Florian Boesch in this song cycle will probably agree with Krenek: it is not without reason the successful singer calls these musical postcards by his compatriot the »most important song cycle of the 20th century«.

For Florian Boesch it is a special concern to bring Krenek's Reisebuch aus den österreichischen Alpen to the concert stages in order to give this masterpiece the appropriate place it deserves.