Hendrickje van Kerckhove (Sopraan) & Inge Spinette (Piano)

The songs ofMozartand Beethoven can be considered a foreshadowing of the genre, but it is only with Schubert that the actual Lied was born. The Song is a setting of a German poem for keyboard and voice, in which both instruments play an equal role. The music expresses the atmosphere, emotions and dramatic development of the text more than ever before. In the 19th century, the intimate genre gained high-profile followers with Schumann, Brahms and Wolf. With his more than two hundred songs, Richard Strauss was one of the most important representatives of Lied in the last century. The Belgian duo Hendrickje Van Kerckhove and Inge Spinette was recently voted 'Rising Star' and is planning a tour of major European venues in the autumn of 2009. With gems by Richard Strauss, Edvard Grieg, Franz Schreker and Arnold Schönberg, they pay tribute to late 19th-century and early 20th-century Lied.