Barbara Hannigan & Reinbert De Leeuw

Together with former students of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Reinbert de Leeuw founded the Schönberg Ensemble in 1974, of which he remains the permanent conductor to this day. In the contemporary music world, De Leeuw is widely known and respected as a pianist, conductor and composer. Together with the Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan, who made her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 1998, he browses through the Viennese repertoire of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Music that was groundbreaking in its time, has often found song to be a valuable means of experimentation. The text has often proven to be a reassuring factor for progressive composers, because it is an effective communication factor. There are Berg's 'Sieben frühe Lieder', written during his apprenticeship with Schönberg. From Webern – also a student of Schoenberg – we receive an early triptych with a text by Richard Dehmel. Schoenberg himself also used Dehmel texts for his opus 2. Hugo Wolf is good for the earliest works from this program, the Mignon-Lieder from the magical song year 1888. Finally, a few songs and a gem for piano solo by the respected Einzelgänger Zemlinsky. He was Schönberg's brother-in-law, lover of Alma Mahler and commissioner of Berg's 'Lyric Suite'.