Péter Wolf: Sommerreise & A Reckless Requiem

If there is an iconic song cycle in the classical lied repertoire, Schubert’s Winterreise is certainly one. While it continues to charm audiences at recitals, the cycle, which was composed almost two hundred years ago, has also been discovered by theatre, ballet and cinema. Péter Wolf and Péter Fábri have put a twist on the story of the work, and the twenty-four songs of their Sommerreise, or, Summer Journey have a heroine, in contrast to the inconsolable, lovelorn man of the original. The woman enacted by Kati Wolf is on her own because her love has disappeared, but instead of fleeing, she has just arrived somewhere. All sorts of things happen to her, but what matters most is that she starts her life again.

Consider but the compositions of Mozart, Berlioz, Verdi or Ligeti, and it is evident that for modern man, a Requiem is not, first and foremost, a mass for the dead with a Latin text and a strictly prescribed structure, but a self-contained concert genre that provides believers and non-believers alike with an opportunity to ponder eternal questions related to death. Péter Wolf’s eight-movement Requiem is centred around life-loving man, and not a God that judges all. The young baritone, Krisztián Szenthelyi will be partnered by the composer and Judit Faludi.