Posted: June 12, 2022

RVA Art Song Series Concert #2

On Saturday, June 11th, we presented “Die Schöne Magelone” by Johannes Brahms, a cycle of fifteen songs, with narrator, in a new, singable English translation. Performed by Richmond’s Three Tenors, Tracey Welborn, Alan Chavez, and James Taylor, along with pianist Charles Lindsey.

Brahms wrote a significant number of lieder but only one song cycle, Die schöne Magelone. Brahms set 15 songs (romances) from Ludwig Tieck’s novella The Wondrous Love Story of the Beautiful Magelone and Count Peter of Provence. Tieck’s story has 18 songs embedded in the text, each in a different chapter, so that the songs are about the character’s states of mind rather than progressing any narrative.