Over het album

Imagine Vienna, sometime in the mid-1800’s. A Spanish merchant who is very gifted at the guitar, a nobleman who has fled the Belgian Revolution and is also a passionate cellist (and who, since his arrival in Vienna, has become fascinated with a curious instrument called the “baryton”), and a Parisian painter and flutist all get together to play Schubert lieder with a singer from Munich who has recently given a guest performance at the “Theater an der Wien”, and whom they have engaged for a petty sum. Anton Diabelli, the Kaiser’s official “k.k. Music Supplier”, has sold them a stack of old and new scores, including Schubert lieder and waltz transcriptions. Delighted with the songs,the four musicians decide to invite a larger circle of friends to a convivial soirée in a salon, where they will present them along with some interspersed waltzes and further instrumental music, combined with several fitting poems: for cheerful enjoyment or tranquil contemplation. That is what it could have been like, that spontaneous Schubertiade.In their Schubertiade, Julian Prégardien and his instrumental friends recreate the special artistic mood one could have felt in Schubert’s day in a Vienna salon. To evoke that atmosphere, they have created a new collage of musical and literary fragments associated with the composer, featuring the unusual combination of flute, baryton and guitar. Three experienced early music specialists with the best credentials – Philippe Pierlot, Marc Hantaï and Xavier Diaz-Latorre, known from the Ricercar Consort, Le Concert des Nations and Les Arts Florissants – gather as a fine instrumental ensemble around one of the young singers most in demand on the current musical scene. With them, he presents his new SACD album “Schubertiade” on the Cologne myrios classics label. Well-known Schubert songs such as Heidenröslein, the Harpist’s Song and Schwanengesang alternate here with dances and short instrumental pieces.