0:00:03 > 0:00:08My name is Thomas Quasthoff and I am a lover of the German lied song.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11I used to sing these songs around the world
0:00:11 > 0:00:16and now, I have turned from practitioner to teacher.
0:00:17 > 0:00:23Lied singing, for me, is the most intimate, difficult,
0:00:23 > 0:00:26beautiful form of music-making.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30"Lied" simply means "song",
0:00:30 > 0:00:33and from the domestic drawing rooms of the 19th century
0:00:33 > 0:00:36to the concert halls of the 21st,
0:00:36 > 0:00:41these are the songs in which the German romantic soul bloomed.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44HE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:00:49 > 0:00:52Little songs, huge emotions.
0:00:52 > 0:00:58Poems of nature, love and death, set for solo voice and a piano.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05SHE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:01:05 > 0:01:10Lied is a little work, a short work and it opens a world.
0:01:10 > 0:01:15We will discover the most intimate music of the great composers.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18What's so wonderful about it is it's just straight to you.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21HE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:01:29 > 0:01:33Franz Schubert, who seized the new possibilities of the piano
0:01:33 > 0:01:35and created over 600 songs.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39It's like being offered a limitless free masterclass
0:01:39 > 0:01:43with the greatest prince of song who, in my opinion, ever lived.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46And the enigmatic Johannes Brahms.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49SHE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:01:50 > 0:01:55With Brahms, it was always a very, very deep love affair
0:01:55 > 0:02:02between his incredible, wonderful, glorious music and my small soul.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07I worked nearly 40 years as a concert singer
0:02:07 > 0:02:11and especially, also, as a lied singer,
0:02:11 > 0:02:16and it would be great if you could share this wonderful experience
0:02:16 > 0:02:17together with me.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27THOMAS SINGS IN GERMAN
0:03:18 > 0:03:21That was me, singing in 2003.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24Now I have retired from concert lied singing.
0:03:24 > 0:03:29I am a professor at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin,
0:03:29 > 0:03:34passing on this two-century-old tradition to the next generation.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37Der Genesene An Die Hoffnung. Oh, one of my favourites.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40STUDENT SINGS IN GERMAN
0:03:50 > 0:03:52It's not really until you go to a country
0:03:52 > 0:03:57and you work in German and you see it that you begin
0:03:57 > 0:03:59to understand the kind of context.
0:03:59 > 0:04:04THOMAS SINGS IN GERMAN
0:04:04 > 0:04:05I love this music.
0:04:05 > 0:04:11All the context is about love, mislove, drama, death.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15Very rarely, you have a happy song in between.
0:04:15 > 0:04:21Most of it is depressed and praying for better times.
0:04:21 > 0:04:23Like nowadays.
0:04:23 > 0:04:25THEY LAUGH
0:04:25 > 0:04:28The German lieder, it's often written in a very romantic style,
0:04:28 > 0:04:32so the stories it's telling are quite dark and deep
0:04:32 > 0:04:36and they have a different root to English song.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41LAWRENCE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:04:47 > 0:04:50Can you try to sing it a little bit without this...?
0:04:50 > 0:04:52Yeah.
0:04:52 > 0:04:53I'll show you the difference.
0:04:53 > 0:04:58THOMAS SINGS THE SAME LINE TWICE, SLIGHTLY DIFFERENTLY
0:05:03 > 0:05:05- More space.- Yeah.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08Lawrence came with his British technique,
0:05:08 > 0:05:10which is always a little bit... like this.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14So, I'm freeing his voice and he completely trusts me.
0:05:14 > 0:05:19Always searching, Lawrence, for light vowels, not this kind of...
0:05:19 > 0:05:22- You did this in England. Now we are here.- Yes.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26So, use pure vowels. That's much nicer.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29LAWRENCE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:05:33 > 0:05:37- OK, let's try something. Can you come to me?- Yeah.
0:05:37 > 0:05:39Can you put your hands here on my ribs?
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Little lower. You see...
0:05:42 > 0:05:46THOMAS SINGS IN GERMAN
0:05:46 > 0:05:49- Can you...?- Yeah.- This here.- Yeah.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52- Yeah, like lifting it up a little bit.- Yeah.
0:05:52 > 0:05:55That gives, also, a little bit more sound. Can you try it?
0:05:56 > 0:05:59LAWRENCE SINGS IN GERMAN Ah!
0:06:02 > 0:06:05- Yeah. It's much better.- Yeah.
0:06:05 > 0:06:08I was an artist who didn't fix, really, every note
0:06:08 > 0:06:13because, for me, that was always the death of music-making.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15Can you do it again?
0:06:49 > 0:06:50Let go.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35Lied songs are poetry set to music
0:07:35 > 0:07:39and the art form started a little over 200 years ago,
0:07:39 > 0:07:43when a new sense of the individual, the Romantik Betreffen -
0:07:43 > 0:07:46the Romantic Movement - swept across Europe.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51Romanticism in Germany is about
0:07:51 > 0:07:54turning towards human emotions,
0:07:54 > 0:07:57towards emotions that are deep and dark, like melancholy,
0:07:57 > 0:08:03and a return to that which is natural and authentic
0:08:03 > 0:08:05and belonging to the folk or the people.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11German thinkers and poets are interested
0:08:11 > 0:08:14in constructing a national German literature
0:08:14 > 0:08:19and this turned towards the folk tale, towards nature,
0:08:19 > 0:08:23served as a kind of shared culture across German-speaking Europe.
0:08:28 > 0:08:30We are now in Heidelberg,
0:08:30 > 0:08:35where it's starting the fifth lied competition...
0:08:35 > 0:08:37SHE TRILLS
0:08:37 > 0:08:44..which was created in 2009 by myself, um,
0:08:44 > 0:08:49to support the lied singing in Germany and to give young singers
0:08:49 > 0:08:52the opportunity to stay with five days on lied singing.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56I think we have 24 different nations,
0:08:56 > 0:08:58so we will see what's going to happen.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03HE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:09:13 > 0:09:16This is the secret of singing lieder.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19You have to sing lieder as if you are really singing
0:09:19 > 0:09:23for one person and this one person is the public
0:09:23 > 0:09:25in front of you.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28CONTESTANT SINGS IN GERMAN
0:09:33 > 0:09:37We have the pianist and yourself.
0:09:38 > 0:09:43And to create an atmosphere, it is absolutely necessary
0:09:43 > 0:09:47that you give the audience the feeling that it's not rehearsed,
0:09:47 > 0:09:51that you create, from that moment where you are on stage,
0:09:51 > 0:09:53the poem, together with the music.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56APPLAUSE
0:09:56 > 0:09:59- Enjoy, Heidelberg.- Danke schoen. - Gerne.
0:10:21 > 0:10:23Life, death,
0:10:23 > 0:10:29deep joy. Little songs, huge emotions.
0:10:29 > 0:10:33And everything in a very minimalistic way.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36HE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:10:40 > 0:10:43Song is such a precious thing,
0:10:43 > 0:10:44I think, especially now,
0:10:44 > 0:10:47when everything gets bigger and bigger and louder and louder
0:10:47 > 0:10:49and you're assaulted by noise.
0:10:49 > 0:10:56It's so wonderful to be drawn in to a world...that's, well,
0:10:56 > 0:10:59far away, perhaps, but the emotions are the same as we all have now.
0:11:08 > 0:11:13All our contestants perform songs composed by Robert Schuman,
0:11:13 > 0:11:16Wolfgang Rihm and, of course, Franz Schubert.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20He was the first great lieder writer.
0:11:20 > 0:11:24I adore Schubert but...it's the greatest test.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40They can choose from an amazing 600 poems
0:11:40 > 0:11:44he set to music in his short 13-year career.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56It's incredibly moving,
0:11:56 > 0:11:59the sheer phenomena of Schubert's life,
0:11:59 > 0:12:01how much he did in such a short space of time.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05SHE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:12:05 > 0:12:08But it is really worth remembering what the songs were for.
0:12:08 > 0:12:10We see them now, in concert halls and competitions
0:12:10 > 0:12:12and all the rest of it.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16They were made for living rooms, the living rooms of his friends.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20A couple of hundred years ago, in Schubert's Vienna,
0:12:20 > 0:12:23these songs would be performed at private house parties,
0:12:23 > 0:12:26bringing this poetry of love, death and nature
0:12:26 > 0:12:28directly into the domestic living room.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35This kind of thing became known as a Schubertiade.
0:12:35 > 0:12:39Moritz von Schwind was a frequent guest and he sketched one of them.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42Schubert is there at the piano and around him are his friends -
0:12:42 > 0:12:44the musicians, poets and lieder lovers,
0:12:44 > 0:12:48who were the original audience for these songs.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54For our Das Lied competition in Heidelberg,
0:12:54 > 0:12:57photographer Martin Walz is recreating
0:12:57 > 0:13:00Moritz von Schwind's Schubertiade picture
0:13:00 > 0:13:04with the judges and all our contestants.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08You make a face that you win all the first prize.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10LAUGHTER
0:13:10 > 0:13:13There would have been lied singing and then, afterwards,
0:13:13 > 0:13:16some eating and drinking and dancing.
0:13:25 > 0:13:26Cheese!
0:13:31 > 0:13:38The function of these lieder was as a common, cultural material
0:13:38 > 0:13:40for the German Bildungsburger.
0:13:40 > 0:13:44"Bildungsburger" meaning the cultured middle classes.
0:13:44 > 0:13:49These particular songs were printed, they were widely distributed,
0:13:49 > 0:13:53so that these educated members of the middle class
0:13:53 > 0:13:56could gather together, listen to these songs
0:13:56 > 0:14:00and share this kind of common culture.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03SHE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:14:09 > 0:14:12Personally, I fell in love
0:14:12 > 0:14:15with Schubert's songs aged 14,
0:14:15 > 0:14:17when other boys of my age
0:14:17 > 0:14:21were chasing girls and I heard, on the radio,
0:14:21 > 0:14:24the Schubert lieder, and I was hooked for life.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46Here he is, pouring out his heart
0:14:46 > 0:14:51and I find it almost unbearably moving that this great composer,
0:14:51 > 0:14:55who was only five foot tall, who suffered from syphilis,
0:14:55 > 0:14:57which meant that his hair fell out
0:14:57 > 0:14:59because of the treatment through mercury,
0:14:59 > 0:15:01who was myopic and fat,
0:15:01 > 0:15:04his nickname was "Little Mushroom",
0:15:04 > 0:15:08that he should pour out his heart
0:15:08 > 0:15:11in these wrenching songs of unrequited love.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15SHE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:15:28 > 0:15:32The people who are participating here are professional singers,
0:15:32 > 0:15:37finding their footsteps in the musical world.
0:15:37 > 0:15:39We're just about to go and find out
0:15:39 > 0:15:42the result of whether we're through to the semifinal.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46It's nerve-racking right now, but we felt good after yesterday,
0:15:46 > 0:15:50- I think.- Yeah.- We'll just have to wait and see.- Que sera sera.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55- We did the best we could under the circumstances.- Yeah.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58- And we like working together, so... - We enjoyed it.- We did.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04The standard is really very, very high.
0:16:04 > 0:16:11Lied singing only can survive if we put this level very high.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15We need artists who have something to say
0:16:15 > 0:16:18and who are still going on in this wonderful tradition.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24I'm generally very critical because I know how difficult,
0:16:24 > 0:16:27in our days, it is to get a job.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29A lot of the singers could well be working
0:16:29 > 0:16:31in isolation all over the world,
0:16:31 > 0:16:34so they get an opportunity to meet other singers.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36We have nobody in the next round.
0:16:36 > 0:16:38Ha-ha-ha.
0:16:38 > 0:16:43THOMAS PLAYS THE PIANO AND SINGS IN GERMAN
0:16:56 > 0:16:59It's not all about the winning. It's about being seen
0:16:59 > 0:17:03and getting over the nerves of singing to an international jury.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06Don't be sad if you are not in the next round
0:17:06 > 0:17:10because every day is the chance to get better.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13Thank you very, very much that you will all be here
0:17:13 > 0:17:17and to all who are in the next round, congratulations.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19Give the best and we're looking forward for tomorrow.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22APPLAUSE
0:17:22 > 0:17:25The music deserves a perfect preparation
0:17:25 > 0:17:31to handle incredible, great, small pieces
0:17:31 > 0:17:34of wonderful, great art.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38And the respect for the music and the composer
0:17:38 > 0:17:42demands that you are very precise
0:17:42 > 0:17:46and full of love to work on these pieces.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51STUDENT SINGS IN GERMAN
0:18:01 > 0:18:05You have to be demanding as a teacher - not to let go too easy,
0:18:05 > 0:18:09not to say, "Everything is wonderful," if it's not wonderful.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17You know what my problem is? You know what my problem is?
0:18:17 > 0:18:19You are singing it
0:18:19 > 0:18:26and I hear that you put some emotion in the lines,
0:18:26 > 0:18:28but what happens in the song?
0:18:28 > 0:18:31- Whom is he asking?- Well, himself...
0:18:33 > 0:18:38- ..I thought.- So, if you're asking yourself and you sing...
0:18:38 > 0:18:41THOMAS SINGS A LINE
0:18:41 > 0:18:44It's nice. But if I ask myself, it's...
0:18:44 > 0:18:49HE SINGS WITH MORE RESTRAINT AND PASSION
0:18:49 > 0:18:53- You know what I mean? - I know what you mean, yes.
0:18:53 > 0:18:55I try to be honest.
0:18:55 > 0:18:57This is not always nice for every student
0:18:57 > 0:19:02but if you don't try it here, during the lessons, where should you try?
0:19:02 > 0:19:07And I'm a nice critic. In the real world, it's a little bit different.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10They are critics too, but they are not always nice.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13For me, it's a little bit too straight, how you sing.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16# La, li, la, la, la, li, la. #
0:19:16 > 0:19:20You easily could sing, # Where is the next vacation? #
0:19:20 > 0:19:22I would sing this really...
0:19:22 > 0:19:24THOMAS SINGS WITH RESTRAINT
0:19:24 > 0:19:27A little bit anxious, also, and not this kind of... # La, li, la. #
0:19:27 > 0:19:31I encourage you to trust this emotion.
0:19:31 > 0:19:36- I want to hear that. It's not too much. Don't worry.- Yeah.- OK?
0:19:36 > 0:19:39HE SINGS THE SAME LINE AGAIN
0:19:39 > 0:19:43The colour of my voice is showing what the song is about.
0:19:43 > 0:19:49This is where singing stops and where artistry starts
0:19:49 > 0:19:53and this is, of course, what interests me, as a teacher,
0:19:53 > 0:19:57um, much more than repeating notes which are written.
0:19:57 > 0:19:58That's boring.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06"Wenn meine Schmerzen schweigen." And you sing...
0:20:06 > 0:20:09HE SINGS THE LINE LOUDLY
0:20:09 > 0:20:13- I'm sorry but that's contra-productive.- Yeah, yeah.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16HE SINGS THE LINE MORE SOFTLY
0:20:16 > 0:20:19- "Schweigen" is being silent, not loud.- Yeah.
0:20:19 > 0:20:21- Nochmals?- Ja bitte.
0:20:27 > 0:20:31THOMAS CLICKS HIS TONGUE IN TIME TO THE MUSIC
0:20:31 > 0:20:34I think it's very important to encourage them
0:20:34 > 0:20:38to trust their own emotions and I have to teach them, by the way,
0:20:38 > 0:20:42love for what they do, passion for what they do.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20- Yeah, this is the way it should be.- Yeah.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24- OK.- Yeah.- Wonderful.- Thank you. - You're more than welcome.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27There's no question that Schubert is using everything
0:21:27 > 0:21:29that the pianos of his time can do.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32Huge variety of colour and kind of tactile sounds,
0:21:32 > 0:21:34like conjuring a whole orchestra from the keyboard.
0:21:39 > 0:21:45These 88 keys are the harmonic bed for lied singing,
0:21:45 > 0:21:49so we are here, at the Steinway department in Hamburg,
0:21:49 > 0:21:52to see how a piano is made.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01It's very exciting to see that here, in this raw condition.
0:22:01 > 0:22:07Even thinking about that this will be complete black grand piano.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16He's checking, at the moment, that the keys are on the same level.
0:22:16 > 0:22:20And, if not, he has to put some things under it.
0:22:20 > 0:22:24Takes nearly a year to finish a piano completely.
0:22:24 > 0:22:29And it's more than 7,000 single pieces built in a piano.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33It's really amazing to think about
0:22:33 > 0:22:37how much this instrument that we are seeing here,
0:22:37 > 0:22:40in the raw condition, changed over the 19th century.
0:22:40 > 0:22:45During Schubert's time, we had not this kind of grand pianos.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48We had the pianoforte, which was a softer sound,
0:22:48 > 0:22:52and it was maybe a little bit easier for the singers
0:22:52 > 0:22:55to get over the volume of a pianoforte.
0:22:55 > 0:23:01Then the industrialisation created much bigger instruments,
0:23:01 > 0:23:05more affordable instruments for the middle class.
0:23:07 > 0:23:11As the lieder form develops through the 19th century,
0:23:11 > 0:23:13it demands other things of the voice.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16It's possible to do them intimately,
0:23:16 > 0:23:20but also they demand a much greater, almost operatic range.
0:23:20 > 0:23:22But it's the 20th century where that really starts to happen.
0:23:22 > 0:23:24It becomes more professionalised.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27It becomes closer to a kind of concert experience
0:23:27 > 0:23:29and THE figure of lieder singing
0:23:29 > 0:23:31is Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35He's absolutely, no question, THE model for lieder singers today.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40HE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:23:48 > 0:23:53He had, I think, the most beautiful, lyric baritone voice.
0:23:56 > 0:24:01He was the first singer, I would say, after the Second World War,
0:24:01 > 0:24:06who really started to give clear interpretation of songs.
0:24:06 > 0:24:08He was not only singing it.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11So, for example, if you...
0:24:11 > 0:24:13When I heard the first time the Erlkonig,
0:24:13 > 0:24:16I really could hear four different voices.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20The narrator, the father, the son
0:24:20 > 0:24:22and this evil wood spirit - the Erlkonig.
0:24:22 > 0:24:24And I think, if it would be possible,
0:24:24 > 0:24:26he would even do the horse.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30And that was the first time a singer did this.
0:24:31 > 0:24:33It's a terrifying story
0:24:33 > 0:24:36that is a complete drama in just three minutes.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08The father was anxious and nervous.
0:25:15 > 0:25:17The child was very lightful.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40The Erlkonig was bad and nasty colour.
0:25:56 > 0:26:01The Erl King poem, the Erlkonig, has a very disturbing undertone.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05But what we see in Schubert's treatment
0:26:05 > 0:26:07is a kind of domestication of the text.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09It's still a scary text
0:26:09 > 0:26:13but it's a text that you're now able to welcome into your drawing room.
0:26:13 > 0:26:17And so, people can sit around and enjoy this particular song,
0:26:17 > 0:26:19even though it's deeply disturbing.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22The voices who were singing in the Schubertiade
0:27:22 > 0:27:25were not the big, trained lieder voices,
0:27:25 > 0:27:28because the registers of Schubert's songs are written, frankly,
0:27:28 > 0:27:31for normal people to sing, and that's the whole point of them -
0:27:31 > 0:27:33that they go straight into your soul
0:27:33 > 0:27:35because they're so immediate, so direct.
0:27:35 > 0:27:39CLASSICAL GUITAR PLAYS INTRO TO THE ERL KING
0:27:48 > 0:27:52# Who rides through the night
0:27:52 > 0:27:57# So late in the wild?
0:27:57 > 0:28:03# It is a father with his only child
0:28:03 > 0:28:07# He rides with the boy
0:28:07 > 0:28:09# Fast in his arms... #
0:28:09 > 0:28:13Your first introduction to Schubert, one learnt it through the piano.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16Fortunately, I've been studying classical guitar all of my life,
0:28:16 > 0:28:19and so, I had the idea to start trying to play
0:28:19 > 0:28:21at least some of his music on the guitar.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24# I can run faster than your horse
0:28:24 > 0:28:27# And if you're not willing
0:28:27 > 0:28:31# I'll take you by force
0:28:31 > 0:28:34# Oh, father, father!
0:28:34 > 0:28:37# He's taking me away
0:28:37 > 0:28:44# The evil Erl King has made me his prey... #
0:28:45 > 0:28:48What makes him special and unique for me,
0:28:48 > 0:28:53is that they ride this beautiful line between being folk music,
0:28:53 > 0:28:55which is something that's very accessible
0:28:55 > 0:29:00and very, um, earthy and connected to something we can all understand,
0:29:00 > 0:29:04and yet has this fine touch of sophistication on top of it.
0:29:04 > 0:29:06There's moments you want to stomp your feet
0:29:06 > 0:29:08and there's moments you want to just be overwhelmed
0:29:08 > 0:29:10by how emotional and insightful it can be.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13# ..Arms the boy
0:29:15 > 0:29:17# Was dead. #
0:29:25 > 0:29:29CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:29:31 > 0:29:34Taking the time to dive into these songs, into these texts,
0:29:34 > 0:29:38is like being offered a limitless free masterclass
0:29:38 > 0:29:41with the greatest prince of song who, in my opinion, ever lived.
0:29:50 > 0:29:55# There once was a king from the Thule shore
0:29:55 > 0:30:01# Throughout his life, he was just, brave and bold
0:30:01 > 0:30:06# But after the death of his paramour
0:30:06 > 0:30:11# She left to him a cup made of gold
0:30:11 > 0:30:16# This golden cup never left his side
0:30:16 > 0:30:21# He raised it high at every banquet feast
0:30:21 > 0:30:25# Until, at last, he'd close his kingly eyes
0:30:25 > 0:30:32# And drift off to sleep... #
0:30:32 > 0:30:37When I think of his illness and his fading at such an early age,
0:30:37 > 0:30:40the times he must have spent alone with his poems, I think,
0:30:40 > 0:30:44more than anything else, must have been such a deep soul connection.
0:30:46 > 0:30:51# He watched the sea claim its prize
0:30:51 > 0:30:55# And sink deep within
0:30:55 > 0:31:00# The king closed his weary eyes
0:31:00 > 0:31:06# Never drank a drop again... #
0:31:06 > 0:31:09I just have this idea of him being someone who was capable
0:31:09 > 0:31:13of understanding the human condition in such a way,
0:31:13 > 0:31:16on such a deep level, that they're able to communicate
0:31:16 > 0:31:19through their art, something that really touches the soul
0:31:19 > 0:31:21of what it means to be human.
0:31:21 > 0:31:23And that's something that never gets old.
0:31:23 > 0:31:25That's why we still love Schubert today.
0:31:25 > 0:31:27That's why people even younger than me
0:31:27 > 0:31:29still get excited about his music.
0:31:29 > 0:31:34FEMALE VOCALIST SINGS THE KING IN THULE IN GERMAN
0:31:54 > 0:31:58SHE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:32:05 > 0:32:07It's good that people have occasions
0:32:07 > 0:32:09to be very concentrated
0:32:09 > 0:32:11on little things, little details.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14SHE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:32:23 > 0:32:27One lied is two minutes, two and a half minutes.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30A little work, a short work, and it opens a world.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33APPLAUSE
0:32:46 > 0:32:50We are in Palermo on the island Sicilia
0:32:50 > 0:32:53to do a one-hour jazz concert.
0:32:56 > 0:33:00It's very exciting. The theatre is amazing -
0:33:00 > 0:33:04one of the most beautiful theatres I have ever been.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07# Smile
0:33:07 > 0:33:11# Though your heart is aching
0:33:13 > 0:33:19# Smile even though it's breaking
0:33:21 > 0:33:26# When there are clouds
0:33:26 > 0:33:29# In the sky... #
0:33:29 > 0:33:32I stopped classical singing four and a half years ago.
0:33:33 > 0:33:37My brother died and I came to the hospital
0:33:37 > 0:33:42when my brother laid in hospital. I had a talk with the doctor
0:33:42 > 0:33:44and two days later, I lost my voice completely
0:33:44 > 0:33:47for nearly more than one year
0:33:47 > 0:33:50and, so that was the only decision,
0:33:50 > 0:33:54to say I have no other chance, to cancel my lied singing career.
0:33:54 > 0:33:56It was sad, but I had to cancel.
0:33:56 > 0:34:02On the other side, I never wanted to be a singer who is on stage
0:34:02 > 0:34:05and, in the front row, my students are sitting and saying,
0:34:05 > 0:34:08"You should hear him four years ago."
0:34:09 > 0:34:12And now I'm on stage again to make jazz music,
0:34:12 > 0:34:16to fulfil my life with wonderful music and wonderful musicians,
0:34:16 > 0:34:18so it's very exciting.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22Buona sera, Palermo.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25APPLAUSE
0:34:27 > 0:34:31To sing jazz is a completely different handling of the voice.
0:34:31 > 0:34:32It's more relaxed.
0:34:32 > 0:34:37You are not really doing this kind of resonant tone.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41It's much more related to the speaking voice
0:34:41 > 0:34:43than to a singing voice.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46THOMAS SCATS
0:34:55 > 0:34:58THOMAS CONTINUES TO SCAT
0:35:06 > 0:35:08As a classical musician,
0:35:08 > 0:35:13you are so much more strict, related on the scores.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19In jazz, you are much more free. You have a theme, you have a text,
0:35:19 > 0:35:25but how you put it in the harmonic system is mostly on yourself.
0:35:34 > 0:35:38# Someday
0:35:39 > 0:35:43# Some way
0:35:43 > 0:35:50# We both have a lifetime before us
0:35:53 > 0:36:00# For parting is not goodbye
0:36:03 > 0:36:10# We'll be together
0:36:11 > 0:36:20# Again
0:36:21 > 0:36:27# We'll be together
0:36:28 > 0:36:35# Again
0:36:36 > 0:36:45# We'll be together again. #
0:36:45 > 0:36:48The fact that I stopped classical singing doesn't mean
0:36:48 > 0:36:51that I'm not loving lied singing any more.
0:36:51 > 0:36:56If you really love someone, even if they are creating problems,
0:36:56 > 0:36:58that doesn't change the love.
0:36:58 > 0:37:00APPLAUSE
0:37:02 > 0:37:04Put the microphones away!
0:37:04 > 0:37:08LAUGHTER OK, a wonderful, wonderful,
0:37:08 > 0:37:12beautiful lullaby song for a little child,
0:37:12 > 0:37:16composed by Johannes Brahms.
0:37:16 > 0:37:19APPLAUSE
0:37:19 > 0:37:21It is a jazz concert,
0:37:21 > 0:37:24but I like to sing a little lied song as an encore.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27And what better than this, the Brahms lullaby?
0:37:29 > 0:37:32THOMAS SINGS IN GERMAN
0:38:34 > 0:38:38After Schubert, there was an explosion of lied composing,
0:38:38 > 0:38:41but one figure towers above all others -
0:38:41 > 0:38:43the enigmatic Johannes Brahms.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48He was from the city of Hamburg in northern Germany
0:38:48 > 0:38:52and his family lived in one of the poorest areas of the old town,
0:38:52 > 0:38:55known as "Speckgang", "Bacon Alley".
0:38:55 > 0:39:00It still has some of the feeling of 19th-century squalor.
0:39:02 > 0:39:06I'm standing in front of the monument of Johannes Brahms
0:39:06 > 0:39:12and behind me was, many years ago, the born house of Johannes Brahms.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15He was born there in 1833.
0:39:15 > 0:39:19I honestly don't know when it was destroyed.
0:39:19 > 0:39:21I guess it was in the Second World War.
0:39:21 > 0:39:24When we turn around a little bit,
0:39:24 > 0:39:27there you see these old buildings still existing.
0:39:27 > 0:39:31To imagine how that looked in the past
0:39:31 > 0:39:34is really very touching and moving.
0:39:34 > 0:39:36And, by the way, it's really cold.
0:39:39 > 0:39:43In the 40 years before his death in 1897,
0:39:43 > 0:39:46Brahms wrote around 200 lieder,
0:39:46 > 0:39:50but the Wiegenlied, Cradle Song, is without doubt, the best known.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53We all hear it as babies.
0:39:53 > 0:39:56To find out more about this song and its composer,
0:39:56 > 0:39:59who never married or had any children,
0:39:59 > 0:40:02I'm visiting the Johannes Brahms Museum.
0:40:04 > 0:40:06This is the story
0:40:06 > 0:40:08of the famous Wiegenlied lullaby.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12In 1859, Brahms founded a women's choir
0:40:12 > 0:40:17and one of the girls was Bertha Porubszky.
0:40:17 > 0:40:21And Brahms took a liking in this wonderful young girl
0:40:21 > 0:40:24and probably was very disappointed,
0:40:24 > 0:40:28- seeing her writing her engagement notes.- Mm.
0:40:28 > 0:40:32But, a couple of years later, for her second child,
0:40:32 > 0:40:38- he wrote the famous Wiegenlied lullaby.- Wonderful.
0:40:38 > 0:40:41MUSIC BOX PLAYS WIEGENLIED LULLABY
0:40:41 > 0:40:43Brahms was, for me,
0:40:43 > 0:40:49always my favourite lied composer that I sang in my life.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53And he was a very grounded human being.
0:40:53 > 0:40:57He loved life, he loved wine, he loved women,
0:40:57 > 0:41:00- and I think that's nice. - I totally agree.
0:41:00 > 0:41:05The more you know about his life, the less you know about him.
0:41:05 > 0:41:08- And, I mean, this unfulfilled love. - Yes.
0:41:08 > 0:41:12You find this emotion, I think, in many of Brahms' songs, in his work.
0:41:12 > 0:41:14- In his work in general.- Yeah.
0:41:14 > 0:41:20- Because you never, ever really know if it's minor or it's major.- Yeah.
0:41:20 > 0:41:24- It's always both. You're never sure. - Yes, that's completely true.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28And sometimes his music, if you hear it again,
0:41:28 > 0:41:33in another mood, you hear a different song, a different piece.
0:41:33 > 0:41:38- Mm-hmm.- And Brahms is the only composer where I experience that.
0:41:38 > 0:41:43- Welcome to the club.- Thank you, sir. - It's true. Very true.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51THOMAS SINGS IN GERMAN
0:42:47 > 0:42:51Brahms was, for me, always incredibly touching,
0:42:51 > 0:42:55very earth-grounded music, very honest music.
0:42:55 > 0:42:59And maybe it has to do with my own biography
0:42:59 > 0:43:04because when I was young, I had, also, unfulfilled love affairs
0:43:04 > 0:43:08or even affairs that I wanted to start but the girls didn't want,
0:43:08 > 0:43:15so I found myself so much in this music because it was not kitschy.
0:43:15 > 0:43:20It was very honest and natural way of composing,
0:43:20 > 0:43:24which was going very, very deep in my soul,
0:43:24 > 0:43:27and I always had the feeling, during singing,
0:43:27 > 0:43:33that Brahms is one of these composers that I really understood.
0:43:33 > 0:43:35That's a very nice feeling.
0:43:39 > 0:43:42Brahms had a deep love for poetry.
0:43:42 > 0:43:46He would read aloud verses that inspired him over and over again,
0:43:46 > 0:43:49until a song emerged as if spontaneously.
0:43:50 > 0:43:54And one of his greatest lied songs is a setting of words
0:43:54 > 0:43:59by an almost forgotten poet called Baron Detlev von Liliencron.
0:44:01 > 0:44:04Here we are in Hamburg Rahlstedt,
0:44:04 > 0:44:08in a reconstruction of a study from Detlev von Liliencron.
0:44:08 > 0:44:15He was a soldier, he was a lover and a poet.
0:44:15 > 0:44:22In October, 1888, Detlev von Liliencron wrote to a friend...
0:44:24 > 0:44:28"I have just been overwhelmed with huge happiness.
0:44:30 > 0:44:35"Klaus Groth has sent me Opus 105 by Johannes Brahms
0:44:35 > 0:44:38"which includes, can you believe it,
0:44:38 > 0:44:41"Auf Dem Kirchhofe by Detlev von Liliencron.
0:44:42 > 0:44:47"That, for me, is the highest declaration."
0:44:53 > 0:44:57Here, in Hamburg Rahlstedt, you will find, in the cemetery,
0:44:57 > 0:45:00the grave of Detlev von Liliencron.
0:45:00 > 0:45:04VOCALIST SINGS IN GERMAN
0:45:42 > 0:45:46It's a union between the poem and the music.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49I think he catched, in a perfect way,
0:45:49 > 0:45:52the atmosphere of the poem -
0:45:52 > 0:45:55that somebody is standing at the grave and thinking about love
0:45:55 > 0:45:57and a love which is gone,
0:45:57 > 0:46:00and you can hear, not Brahms,
0:46:00 > 0:46:03but the guy who's thinking in this poem.
0:46:06 > 0:46:09HE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:46:26 > 0:46:28If you have lost people
0:46:28 > 0:46:32and we all had the situation to stay in front of the grave
0:46:32 > 0:46:34and to think about the past,
0:46:34 > 0:46:39it's, for me, one of the most intimate songs that Brahms wrote.
0:47:19 > 0:47:25With Brahms, it was always a very, very deep love affair
0:47:25 > 0:47:31between his incredible, wonderful, glorious music and my small soul.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35SHE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:47:41 > 0:47:43Yeah, and stay in the space.
0:47:43 > 0:47:48- THOMAS REPEATS ONE LINE OF THE SONG - Yeah.
0:47:48 > 0:47:50SHE STARTS SINGING THE LINE AGAIN
0:47:50 > 0:47:53- THOMAS IMITATES HER SINGING STYLE - Yeah, yeah.
0:47:53 > 0:47:55Oval.
0:47:55 > 0:47:58SHE CONTINUES SINGING IN GERMAN
0:48:03 > 0:48:05She's a soprano, so I'm forcing
0:48:05 > 0:48:08her that she's lighting up the voice,
0:48:08 > 0:48:13that she sounds like she's not 46. She's 22.
0:48:13 > 0:48:18So, the sound of the voice has to be a sound of a 22-year-old young lady.
0:48:18 > 0:48:22SHE CONTINUES SINGING IN GERMAN
0:48:29 > 0:48:31- Laure, Laure...- Yeah?
0:48:31 > 0:48:33You look a little bit that the girl is in trouble.
0:48:33 > 0:48:37- Oh, really? OK.- She isn't.- No. It's not on purpose.
0:48:37 > 0:48:39If you do this... Relax and do this.
0:48:41 > 0:48:42Yeah, you tense up.
0:48:42 > 0:48:44And you immediately have a tension here on the throat
0:48:44 > 0:48:47which we don't need. Yeah?
0:48:49 > 0:48:52LAURE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:49:00 > 0:49:04She is a singer who really don't need to be forced
0:49:04 > 0:49:06in being expressive. She is.
0:49:06 > 0:49:10LAURE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:49:18 > 0:49:22- Eine frage. Would it be possible to do a little bit more crescendo?- Yes.
0:49:22 > 0:49:26- Now my question... - Mm-hmm.- Is this neutral singing?
0:49:26 > 0:49:32- I think he has a lot of doubt about their relationship.- Yes.- Um...
0:49:32 > 0:49:37- You see, I even would doubt that. - Yeah?- I think, honestly...- OK.
0:49:37 > 0:49:41- ..that he is not really making many thoughts.- Yeah, OK.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44It's, "Yes, it's a girl and she's nice and bah."
0:49:44 > 0:49:48But SHE is very intense. She says, "Come on, it's our love", yeah?
0:49:48 > 0:49:53And I don't think that he is with the same intensity in this affair.
0:49:54 > 0:49:57- No, I don't.- Don't you agree, sir? - Yes.- Thank you.
0:49:59 > 0:50:02LAURE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:50:07 > 0:50:09Still soft.
0:50:11 > 0:50:12More.
0:50:14 > 0:50:16More.
0:50:22 > 0:50:24Very good!
0:50:26 > 0:50:27Laure, I love it.
0:50:42 > 0:50:44Take a breath.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09Laure, fantastisch!
0:51:09 > 0:51:13Laure, this is really good. 22! Amazing, isn't it?
0:51:13 > 0:51:18Yeah, very, very good. Wonderful, wonderful. Pure joy.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23It's a strange thing, I think, lieder, in the 21st century.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26For those of us who aren't German speakers, there's something...
0:51:26 > 0:51:28There could be something forbidding
0:51:28 > 0:51:31about a woman or a man singing beside a piano,
0:51:31 > 0:51:34nothing else on stage, and you're expected to be plunged
0:51:34 > 0:51:38into these extraordinary interior worlds of the poems and the songs.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41It's just going back to, like, the crucible of how they happened.
0:51:41 > 0:51:43Schubert and his mates in the living room.
0:51:43 > 0:51:46They're supposed to communicate absolutely directly to us.
0:51:46 > 0:51:50When it works - the poem, the emotion, the text, the music -
0:51:50 > 0:51:54it does produce this extraordinary power.
0:51:54 > 0:51:58HE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:52:07 > 0:52:12Now it's the rehearsal for the final of the Das Lied competition.
0:52:12 > 0:52:14We started here with 26 duos.
0:52:14 > 0:52:18For this evening, only seven remain.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22I realised that I am momentarily extremely relaxed.
0:52:22 > 0:52:26But for the competitors, it will be a little bit different,
0:52:26 > 0:52:27because they will be very nervous
0:52:27 > 0:52:30and some, also, I think, a little bit frightened.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34But you have to learn to handle your nerves.
0:52:34 > 0:52:37PIANIST BEGINS PLAYING
0:52:42 > 0:52:46SHE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:52:54 > 0:52:58This is, I think, what lied singing is about -
0:52:58 > 0:53:02the excitement of creating a dramatic line
0:53:02 > 0:53:05and make it more dramatic.
0:53:05 > 0:53:07SHE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:53:10 > 0:53:13It's not enough to sing words.
0:53:13 > 0:53:15I think we are painters,
0:53:15 > 0:53:20because I think that the human voice is the most colourful instrument,
0:53:20 > 0:53:25especially comparing to any other instrument on this planet.
0:53:25 > 0:53:28HE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:53:46 > 0:53:49To go to a lieder recital, you're transported.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52You travel on that journey with the singer, with the pianist,
0:53:52 > 0:53:54with the poet, with the composer.
0:53:54 > 0:53:56And it gives you time to reflect
0:53:56 > 0:53:59on your own life and opportunity to step back
0:53:59 > 0:54:01from everything that's going on in the world.
0:54:01 > 0:54:03APPLAUSE
0:54:03 > 0:54:05Ladies and gentlemen,
0:54:05 > 0:54:09welcome to the final of Das Lied International Song Competition.
0:54:09 > 0:54:13Our first duo is mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski,
0:54:13 > 0:54:15accompanied by Tyler Wottrich.
0:54:26 > 0:54:30SHE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:54:42 > 0:54:46The difficulty for every jury to vote for singers
0:54:46 > 0:54:50is that we have to do with subjective voting,
0:54:50 > 0:54:55so we have to give points for musical presence,
0:54:55 > 0:54:59handling of language, how is the diction.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02SHE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:55:18 > 0:55:21We have little compartments which we tick.
0:55:21 > 0:55:23All that is important,
0:55:23 > 0:55:26but the main thing, for me, is here.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29I just want them to move me.
0:55:48 > 0:55:52HE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:56:34 > 0:56:37Most of them will not get the prize
0:56:37 > 0:56:40but still, it is very important for everybody,
0:56:40 > 0:56:43because I think everybody's learning something
0:56:43 > 0:56:46about German lied and the soul of the artist.
0:56:46 > 0:56:49HE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:57:09 > 0:57:13I hope that we find, for the awarding,
0:57:13 > 0:57:15good and great pianists and the singers,
0:57:15 > 0:57:18where I can stand, also, behind and say,
0:57:18 > 0:57:23"Yeah, we can send you in the world and being a very good advertiser,
0:57:23 > 0:57:24"first for our competition,
0:57:24 > 0:57:27"and second for the lied singing in general."
0:57:29 > 0:57:31Lied singing is a living art form.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34Well done, team!
0:57:34 > 0:57:37But to keep it alive, we need three things.
0:57:38 > 0:57:42We already have these thousands of wonderful songs
0:57:42 > 0:57:45and the singers and pianists who can perform them
0:57:45 > 0:57:47as beautifully as they deserve.
0:57:49 > 0:57:52But without you, an audience who are coming to concert halls
0:57:52 > 0:57:57to share this experience, there would be no future for lied song.
0:57:58 > 0:58:01It means a lot to me because it's poetry and music
0:58:01 > 0:58:03coming together and creating something
0:58:03 > 0:58:05even higher than both of that,
0:58:05 > 0:58:08so basically lied. It's great music. I love it.
0:58:09 > 0:58:12Thank you for following our lied journey.
0:58:12 > 0:58:17Maybe you see how wonderful this profession is
0:58:17 > 0:58:20and how many talented young people we have
0:58:20 > 0:58:24who are really going to succeed in this musical world.
0:58:24 > 0:58:27Thank you very much again, and I hope you liked it.
0:58:29 > 0:58:32HE SINGS IN GERMAN