Listen to Simon Keenlyside's Edinburgh Recital

Simon Keenlyside at Edinburgh (right)

For the next four days one can enjoy Simon Keenlyside's amazing recital with Malcolm Martineau from the Edinburgh Festival on August 20th. The program contrasted English songs of regret and lost innocence in the first half with richly romantic German lieder in the second half.

Keenlyside and Martineau bring together songs from Butterworth’s A Shropshire Lad, a touching evocation of a vanishing pastoral England, and Vaughan Williams’s Songs of Travel, which explore the innermost thoughts and longings for home of soldiers on the front line.

The rich melodies of Schumann’s gripping mini-drama Ballade des Harfners are a fine contrast to the touching pastoral evocations of Wolf’s Fussreise and Blumengruss. For an encore, Keenlyside performs Britten's The Fly from Songs and Proverbs of William Blake. Click HERE to listen to the recital.

You can next catch Keenlyside live at the Royal Opera House where he opens as the title character in Verdi's Rigoletto, in a cast that includes Saimir Pirgu as the Duke of Mantua, Aleksandra Kurzak as Gilda and fellow barihunk Duncan Rock as Marullo. The opera runs through October 6th and additional information is available online.

Here is the entire program for the Edinburgh recital:

Ireland: Sea Fever
Somervell: Into my heart an air that kills
Vaughan Williams: Youth and Love
Eisler: Spruch 1939
Somervell: There pass the careless people
Butterworth: When I was One and Twenty
Gurney: In Flanders
Butterworth: Think no more, Lad
Butterworth: The Lads in their hundreds
Butterworth: On the Idle Hill of Summer
Ireland: Vagabond
Trad: The three ravens
Eisler: Despite these miseries
Eisler: The only thing that consoles us
Finzi: Fear no more the heat o' the sun
Vaughan Williams: The Vagabond

11:40 (during the interval)
Wagner: Siegfried Idyll

12:00
Schumann: Ballade des Harfners
Wolf: Fussreise
Wolf: Denk es, o Seele
Wolf: Blumengruss
Wolf: Lied vom Winde
Wolf: Schlafendes Jesuskind
Wolf: Wie sollt ich heiter bleiben
Wolf: Christblume II
Wolf: Nimmersatte Lieve
Wolf: Lied eines Verliebten
Wolf: Storchenbotschaft

Michael Weyandt to perform with Summer of Song Series

Michael Weyandt

Our most recent post about German barihunk Martin Häßler ended with a notice about his upcoming debut recital at Wigmore Hall in London. The concert features works by Schubert, Wolf and Finzi. So imagine our surprise when the next day our inbox included a notice for American barihunk Michael Weyandt's upcoming recital with the "Summer of Song Series" in New York featuring works by Schubert, Wolf and Finzi.

The recitals do feature mostly different works by the two singers, except for Wolf's Begegnung
and An eine Aeolsharfe. Häßler will be performing Mussorgsky and Weyandt will have music by Bolcom, Poulenc, Fujimoto and Lehrer.

Heinrich Schlusnus sings Hugo Wolf's "Begegnung":

Weyandt's recital will be on on Thursday, June 20 at 7pm at Opera America (330 7th Avenue) and will feature accompanist Thomas Muraco. Single tickets for the concert are $25 in advance and $30 at the door. Contact Blair Boone at ASPSNY@gmail.com regarding tickets. For all other tickets, visit, artsongpreservationsociety.org, call (646) 369-5247 or purchase directly at the door.

Happy Birthday, Hugo Wolf (1860-1903)

Hugo Wolf

Wolf played the violin, piano and organ as a child and studied briefly at the Vienna Conservatory from 1875 to 1877 where he met his idol Richard Wagner. He wrote musical criticism for the Wiener Salonblatt, taking sides with Wagner and Anton Bruckner against Johannes Brahms. It was difficult for Wolf to get his compositions performed during this period due to his printed views. Wolf was broke most of his life and at times had to make due with one meal a day. His bad temper made it difficult to keep students. He was said to be small, of mean build, thin and undernourished.  

Christopher Herbert sings Wunden trägst du, mein Geliebter:

 In 1888, Wolf was living in a friend's villa in Perchtoldsdorf near Vienna where he had a period of intense creativeness. He wrote many songs with texts by Goethe, Eduard Mörike, Eichendorff, and other German poets. He also used foreign lyrics in translation. He continued and extended the lied tradition of Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann, but he was original in his conception of the songbook as the larger dramatic form. His later life was clouded by illness, depression and final insanity. Wolf becoming manic-depressive and was sent to a lunatic asylum, mad at the age of 43.

Piotr Prochera sings Gebet:

A number of baritones have successfully recorded his Mörike lieder, including Olaf Baer, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Thomas Allen and Hans Hotter. 

Wolf wrote numerous songs for baritone including Der Musikant; Nachtzauber; Verschwiegene Liebe; Das Standchen; Prometheus; Wachterlied auf der Wartburg; Biterolf; Benedeit die sel'ge Mutter; Nun lass und Frieden schliessen; Der Mond hat eine schwere Klag'; Auf dem grunen Balkon; Koniglich Gebet; Der Rattenfanger; Genialisch Treiben; Heimweh; Grenzen der Menschheit; Cophtisches Lied II; Cophtisches Lied I; Harfenspieler I; Seemanns Abschied; Der verzweifelte Liebhaber; Anakreons Grab; Abschied; Lied eines Verliebten; Gesang Weylas; Der Jager; An die Geliebte; Gebet; Seufzer; Verborgenheit; Der Genesene an die Hoffnung; Der Tambour; Fussreise; Der Freund.

Gérard Souzay sings "Gesang Weylas"

Barihunk Stuff You Don't Want to Miss

Jonathan Estabrooks

Our favorite vlogger Jonathan Estabrooks keeps a busy schedule. This Thursday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m. he'll be part of a concert that includes Gian Carlo Menotti's The Telephone and a collection of opera arias and duets with soprano Emily Duncan-Brown. The concert is at the SWCC King Community Center in Richlands, Virginia and includes selections from Verdi, Puccini and Rossini.

Christopher Dylan Herbert in Central City

Just a reminder that you can hear Christopher Dylan Herbert live on WWFM singing Johann Sebastian Bach's Cantata 56 "Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen." The concert is free, so if you're in New York go check out this talented member of New York Polyphony. The concert will performed on Monday, April 16 at 1pm EST at St. Paul's Chapel near Ground Zero. Broadcast time is 10 AM for those on the West Coast.

Herbert's ensemble New York Polyphony is currently performing on the East Coast as part of the Five Boroughs Music Festival's Gabrieli @ 400 and these concerts are not to be missed. On April 27 they perform at St. Ann's and the Holy Trinity in Brooklyn, on April 28 they are at St. Ignatius of Antioch in New York City and then on April 29 they perform at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Quirijn de Lang sings Hugo Wolf

One of the most popular singers on this site is Dutch barihunk Quirijn de Lang, who appears to have quite an international fan club. He's just released a CD of songs by Hugo Wolf based on work by Ibsen & other poets. He is joined by soprano Mary Bevan and accompanist Sholto Kynoch. For lovers of Wolf lieder, the recording includes twelve previously unrecorded songs.  You can purchase the CD at Stone Records. 

Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

Free TIm McDevitt Recital

Tim McDevitt 

Tim MCDevitt will be performing his final recital at Julliard on Saturday, April 2 at 8:30 PM. The program will feature works by Mozart, Caplet, Wolf, Ullman, Poulenc, Weill, and others.


The emerging barihunk will be joined by Renate Rohlfing on piano and Allison Job on double bass. The concert will be in Paul Hall. 


Contact us at Barihunks@gmail.com

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Chris Herbert Sings Hugo Wolf

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