Abendrot

For her graduation project the soprano Ellen Vanherck is performing Richard Strauss's Vier letzte Lieder together with Maurice Delage’s Quatre poèmes Hindous.

 

When Richard Strauss wrote his Vier letzte Lieder in 1948, they were to become his musical testament. Warmth and resignation resound throughout this composition, which is based on the writings of Herman Hesse and Joseph von Eichendorff in which death is the main theme. For her graduation project at the Antwerp Conservatoire, the soprano Ellen Vanherck is performing these masterpieces of German postromanticism together with Maurice Delage’s Quatre poèmes Hindous, a work from the early 20th-century French repertoire that touches on the same themes. Ellen is being coached by Wouter Van Looy in a performance that explores the boundaries between music, poetry and art. She is creating a multimedia setting with video images by Chris Meulemans. Her mother Els Janssen accompanies her on the piano.