麻豆社

Schubert's Die sch枚ne M眉llerin - a journey from optimism to despair and tragedy.

A current Radio 3 New Generation Artist, the tenor Santiago Sanchez, is joined by the pianist Joseph Middleton in a recording made this summer at Wigmore Hall of Schubert's epoch-making song cycle.

Schubert: Song cycle 'Die sch枚ne M眉llerin,' - 'The Fair Maid of the Mill', D. 795

Santiago Sanchez (tenor)
Joseph Middleton (piano)

Choosing twenty poems from a recently written set by Wilhelm M眉ller, Schubert places the entire story in the realm of the miller's imagination. With its range of vocal writing and its breathtaking piano part - conjuring up images of a running stream, the grinding of wheels and cogs and the blast of a hunter's horn - the twenty-six-year-old Schubert created in this first song cycle a musical drama no less revolutionary than those of Wagner. It's a tragic twist of fate that Wilhelm M眉ller would never have Schubert's settings, for as he wrote, "...my songs lead but half a life, a paper existence of black-and-white, until music breathes life into them..."

For over a quarter of a century, Radio 3鈥檚 prestigious talent scheme has provided an invaluable springboard for many of today鈥檚 leading international soloists and chamber music ensembles. Indeed, a list of the former alumni reads like a Who鈥檚 Who of the international music scene with names like Alice Coote, Lisa Batiashvili, Igor Levit, Sean Shibe, Alison Balsom, Anastasia Kobekina and the Belcea Quartet.