TALE OF TWO CITIES: Vienna & Paris

February 7, 2025 | Blue Gallery

Rebecca Ringle Kamarei mezzo-soprano
Bryan Wagorn piano

Illustrated talk by Irina Knaster

Program
Songs from Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms, including Der Liebende, Frühlingsglaube, and Dein blaues Auge hält | Gustav Mahler’s Urlicht, Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen, and Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht? | Romantic highlights from Richard Strauss, including Morgen! and Ruhe, meine Seele! | French classics Bizet’s Ouvre ton cœur (Bolero) and Debussy’s Clair de lune | Debussy’s Fêtes galantes II, featuring En sourdine, Fantoches, and Colloque sentimental

This concert is a fascinating journey in song through two of Europe’s greatest cultural capitals—Vienna and Paris. The German Romantic art songs—Lieder—began in Vienna with Schubert in the beginning of the 19th century, stretching through this century all the way to Richard Strauss. Influenced by Schubert, the French art song—Mélodie—emerged later. It was Berlioz who initiated a golden age of Mélodie that continued with Fauré and Debussy well into the 20th century.

These exquisite songs were intended to be performed in the intimate setting of salons—gatherings in aristocratic parlors where patrons, composers, and performers mingled to share fresh ideas and celebrate new creations. In this concert, we present a magnificent tapestry of Lieder and Mélodie while also introducing you to the salonnières—influential, extraordinary women whose gatherings provided the fertile ground in which these songs thrived. Composers and performers vied for the chance to perform at these salons, eager to have their music heard, discussed, and supported, and woven into the cultural fabric of the day.

It was these remarkable women—patrons, friends, and muses to great composers from Mozart and Beethoven to Fauré and Debussy—who were the tastemakers of society and shaped the artistic milieu of both Vienna and Paris.