Schulte & Popov – A Secret Invitation

That is precisely what this evening is about.

The focus is on Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Op. 48, one of the great song cycles of the Romantic era: sixteen songs that trace the course of a love affair – from its first blossoming, through betrayal, pain and grief, to that final song in which the singer casts his love and his sorrow into the sea. Much of it is not merely poetic invention. Schumann composed the cycle in 1840, the year he finally managed to marry Clara – music, in which his own experience resonates.

A selection of character pieces offers a glimpse into the web of relationships of that era: Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms – three individuals whose lives and works were intertwined in a way that continues to fascinate to this day. The programme concludes with songs by Richard Strauss, in which late-Romantic timbres meet a pure zest for life – crowned by the title track, ‘Heimliche Aufforderung’ (Secret Invitation), one of the most exuberant love songs ever written.

Baritone Felix Schulte (HMT) and pianist Daniel Popov (UdK) present the evening not as a series of individual pieces, but as a coherent narrative. An invitation to encounter one’s own memories through words and music – and perhaps to go home with a question one hasn’t asked for a long time.