Corinna Harfouch & Hideyo Harada

In early 1833, when the twenty-one-year-old Franz Liszt was performing at a soirée, one of the most elegant figures in Parisian society was among the guests: Marie d’Agoult.

The daughter of Count Maurice de Flavigny and granddaughter of the banker Moritz Bethmann, she was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1805. In 1827, she entered into a marriage of convenience in Paris with Count Charles d’Agoult, who was fifteen years her senior, with whom she had two children. The marriage was not a happy one, but they had come to terms with it, and the countess enjoyed complete freedom to pursue her intellectual interests. She opened her own salon, where literary readings took place. Marie d’Agoult’s captivating beauty, her taste, and her intelligence won her many admirers. For Liszt, his relationship with the countess—who was six years his senior—was to become the first true love of his life. In the Parisian salons, Marie’s romantic relationship with Liszt was considered a scandal. Fleeing social pressure, the two fled to Switzerland. However, these years were also overshadowed by frequent periods of separation. Liszt set out on extended concert tours with increasing frequency, giving rise to an extensive correspondence between the two lovers that documents both their intimate relationship and their fading happiness.

Under the theme “All Our Love, All Our Misfortune,” Corinna Harfouch and Hideyo Harada present a musical and literary program dedicated to the couple Liszt and d’Agoult. Readings from Marie’s memoirs, the correspondence between her and Liszt, and documents by contemporaries are interwoven with excerpts from the *Années de Pélerinage* and other piano works by the composer. In this way, words and music combine to offer profound insights into one of the great love stories of the 19th century.

Corinna Harfouch is one of Germany’s best-known character actresses in film, television, and theater. She embodies the extremes of human existence with depth and conviction. Her performances often involve a delicate balancing act between the abysses of life. Born in Suhl, the actress graduated from the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin and, since completing her training, has appeared on all of Germany’s major theater stages as well as in numerous guest performances in Austria and Switzerland. Since her film debut in 1995, she has appeared in more than 100 film and theatrical productions. Her most recent films include *The Girl with the Golden Hands* (2022) by Katharina Marie Schubert and *Everything Is Fine* (2022) by Natja Brunckhorst. Corinna Harfouch has received numerous awards for her theater work. Among other honors, she was awarded the Gertrud Eysoldt Ring in 1997 for outstanding acting achievements and, in the same year, was named Actress of the Year by the magazine *Theater heute* for her role as General Harras in *Des Teufels General* (directed by Frank Castorf). Corinna Harfouch has also been honored with numerous awards for her film work, including the Bavarian Film Award, the Adolf Grimme Prize, the German Television Award, the German Film Award, the German Actors’ Award, the Günter Rohrbach Prize, and the Hessian Film Award.

“Whether it’s fiery emotion or dreamy poetry, whether gentle or wild: Hideyo Harada lets herself be carried away by the music; from the most delicate chord to the most frenzied passages, she draws out every emotional nuance through sound,” wrote the *Süddeutsche Zeitung* about the Japanese pianist. With her wide-ranging repertoire, she is now a welcome guest at international festivals and performs with leading orchestras.

Harada’s versatility is also reflected in her extensive discography, which includes works by Samuel Feinberg and Michio Mamiya as well as compositions by Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Grieg, and Scriabin. In chamber music recitals, Hideyo Harada collaborates with, among others, the Borodin Quartet, violinists Latica Honda-Rosenberg and Mikhail Simonyan, cellist Jens Peter Maintz, and baritone Roman Trekel. In addition to recordings made for international radio and television stations, the pianist has several award-winning recordings to her credit.

Corinna Harfouch & Hideyo Harada

“All Our Love, All Our Misfortune—A Program Dedicated to Marie d’Agoult and Franz Liszt”

• Saturday, April 17, 2027
• Doors open: 7:30 p.m.
• Start: 8:00 p.m.