Festival The Art of Song Maastricht

From 23 to 28 February 2027, Maastricht will once again be devoted to the art of song during The Art of Song Maastricht. The festival brings together leading international musicians and emerging young talent in the historic heart of the city. Under the theme Pilgrimage of Song, song is approached as a journey through languages, cultures and generations: from poet to composer, from score to performer and ultimately to you, the listener. Themes such as travelling, longing, the search for love and melancholic memories return again and again. Join us on this musical pilgrimage through special historic venues around the Vrijthof.

For this recital, we travel to Spain. The secular songs from Hugo Wolf’s Spanisches Liederbuch are among the most refined and theatrical miniatures of the Romantic song repertoire. The fiery Spanish temperament can be heard in the rapid succession of emotions such as love, desire, jealousy, mockery, tenderness and melancholy. Dividing the songs between soprano and baritone creates a lively dialogue between them. A unique opportunity to hear this rarely performed work in its entirety.

For this repertoire, the festival brings together three song specialists with a particular affinity for the music of Hugo Wolf. Soprano Mirella Hagen was a finalist at the prestigious International Hugo Wolf Competition in Stuttgart and has built an international career with appearances at the Bayreuth Festival, Stuttgart State Opera and Opera Ballet Vlaanderen. Baritone Vincent Kusters has won several international song competitions and has appeared at festivals including the Oxford International Song Festival and the Gstaad Menuhin Festival. Doriana Tchakarova has established herself internationally as a leading song pianist and is known for her award-winning and critically acclaimed recordings.

The intimate atmosphere of Grand Café Soiron adds to the experience of this concert. The sixteenth-century building is known locally as the Spanish Government House, because Emperor Charles V once stayed here. Wolf’s Spanisches Liederbuch acquires a special context in this historic setting.

Before the concert, Dick Disselkoen, a specialist in German literature, poetry analysis and opera, will introduce the Spanisches Liederbuch, focusing among other things on the relationship between text and music and the expressive style of this collection.