Concert: Darkening Splendors, Heavenly Banquets, and Naughty Monks: Schumann’s Liederkreis, op. 39 and Barber’s Hermit Songs

Paulette Curtis, mezzo-soprano, and Päivi Ekroth, piano, will present two musical pieces that explore the inner emotional states, human desires, and the nature of the meditative life. Schumann’s Liederkreis, op. 39 song cycle, set to the poetry of 19th-century German Romantic poet Joseph von Eichendorff, is considered one of the finest cycles in the lieder tradition. The Hermit Songs of 20th-century American composer Samuel Barber are clever, humorous, and touching arrangements of the writings of Irish monks from the eighth to the thirteenth centuries. 

Sponsored and supported by the Nanovic Institute; the Medieval Institute; the Departments of Irish Studies, Theology, and Music; the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts; and the Arts and Letters Dean’s Office.