Knight Errant: Brahms’ Beautiful Magelone in Rotterdam

Diana Damrau, Jonas Kaufmann and Helmut Deutsch's European tour reaches Berlin with a heart-on-sleeve programme of Lieder by Strauss and Mahler. 

In New York's Park Avenue Armory, Claus Guth imagines Schubert's final song collection set in a military hospital, Jonas Kaufmann as one of its soldiers with a story to tell. 

Recitals of Russian song don't have to be suffocated with doom and gloom. Neither do they have to be built upon the works of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov.

Lyric tenor Mauro Peter recently returned to the renowned Schubert festival to sing the demanding song cycle that many consider to be the pinnacle of Lied.

Jonas Kaufmann, German singer extraordinaire, may not be fully human. His exquisite chocolatey tenor, coupled with his extraordinary command of diction, tone and emotion, lend him an other-worldly air, whether performing opera or singing lieder. This man can do no wrong, as was witnessed Tuesday night at his Berlin Philharmonic performance of Schubert’s intense song cycle Winterreise.

The evening began on a fun note: Juliane Banse’s voice rang out in a pre-recorded message, reminding the audience that as far as she knew, cell phones and classical music did not generally mix. After a community chuckle, the audience applauded Banse, Bo Skovhus and Helmut Deutsch onto the stage, and then settled back into its seats for an evening of Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch.