Gisbert zu Knyphausen & Kai Schumacher

Schubert songs re-interpreted

Schubert was the great singer-songwriter of the 19th century. Rather than writing for the elegant concert halls of his day, small, private circles were the intended audience. Many of the themes Schubert sets to music in his late song cycles are entirely of the zeitgeist: fear of homelessness, a longing for warmth and humanity, resistance to the rigid norms of the establishment. When Gisbert zu Knyphausen places Schubert’s songs alongside his own, the parallels become immediately apparent to the ear: There is a deep melancholy that connects both sound worlds, a beauty that comes directly from pain. Yet there is also a hunger for life, for friendship and love, for intoxication and celebration. When Gisbert sings about the »Taumel der Nacht«, the rapturous frenzy of the night, we find ourselves in the midst of the world of the Romantic.