Work: Die schöne Magelone, Romances for voice and piano, Op.33

A fully produced performance of Brahms' Die schӧne Magelone in Philadelphia, complete with on-stage narrator and bespoke drawings, proved less than the sum of its parts.

Brahms’ only song cycle, Die schöne Magelone, gets star treatment from baritone Michael Volle, pianist Helmut Deutsch and narrator Thomas Quasthoff at the Doelen in Rotterdam.

“Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin...”So Julia Somerville, looking extremely comfortable in a pale yellow armchair, with a beautiful table and reading lamp beside her, began a rather unusual recital by Roderick Williams and Roger Vignoles of Brahms’ only song cycle, Die Schöne Magelone.