Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Bass-Baritone Marc Pantus will Present a Non-Standard Recital Inspired by Heine

Later this month Dutch bass-baritone Marc Pantus will perform an art song recital, all of whose selections are likely to be new to most listeners in San Francisco. The title of his program is HARRY, Heine in Holland. It concerns the early years of the German poet Heinrich Heine at a time when he was known mostly by his nickname. His poetry attracted the attention of many German-speaking composers, including Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann. However, the best-known composers are but the tip of a massive iceberg. His Web page on The LiederNet Archive lists 649 texts that have inspired 6950 settings. (At least that is the current total number of entires on the archives site.)

The title of Pantus’ recital does not refer to Heine’s travels in Holland (if he ever made any). Rather, it concerns that portion of the art song repertoire involving Dutch composers, primarily from the nineteenth century, setting Heine’s texts. These composers include Alphons Diepenbrock, Gerrit van Eijken, and Henriette Bosmans, all of whom are likely to be unfamiliar to readers of this site. On the other hand they will be familiar to those who have encountered the CD that Pantus made with pianist Rudolf Jansen, but this was released only by the Netherlands division of harmonia mundi. However, Pantus is continuing with his project; and his recital in San Francisco will include a recently composed Heine setting by Bart Visman. His accompanist for this performance will be pianist Shuann Chai.

This recital will take place at 4 p.m. on Saturday, October 22. It will be hosted by the Noe Valley Ministry, which is located at 1021 Sanchez Street. Tickets are being sold for $25; but members of the NorCal Chapter of the Netherland-America Foundation (NAF) will be entitled to a $15 rate. (NAF provided a Cultural Grant to support the production of this performance.) Tickets at both prices are currently available online through an Eventbrite event page.

No comments: