Recital 3: Die Schöne Müllerin


Song cycle by Franz Schubert 1823-4

Schubert’s first song cycle tells of the pain of a poet – a wanderer – who has been rejected by the miller’s daughter (she instead has lost her heart to the huntsman).  As the 20 songs progress the hero experiences hope and ecstasy, and later, disappointment and despair, as he realises that suicide is the only solution to his desperate situation.  In the final song we learn that he has succumbed to the solace offered by the brook in the depths of its waters.

To coincide with a new CD of Die Schöne Müllerin in Spring 2011, Peter Medhurst offers his interpretation of this famous work to festivals, music societies and concert organisations for the season 2011-13.  An Englishman, but born of a German mother, Peter Medhurst draws on his German roots to bring insight to Wilhelm Müller’s text.

For the accompaniment, connoisseurs may wish to request the use of a Thomas Tomkison piano of 1824 from Peter Medhurst’s collection of historic keyboard instruments.