2016 Gilmore Festival: Susan Graham (mezzo-soprano), Bradley Moore (piano)

“An eloquent interpreter of a large repertory, from German Classicism to contemporary American music,” says The New York Times of the incomparable mezzo-soprano Susan Graham. Appearing here with pianist Bradley Moore, Graham’s intimate concert will present a program titled Frauenliebe und -Leben (A Woman’s Love and Life). The supremely beautiful Schumann songs of this work will be interspersed with works by Berlioz, Mahler, Ravel, Tchaikovsky, and others that Graham has chosen to expand upon this classic of the song literature.

Graham’s program consists of eight poems by Adelbert von Chamisso, written in 1830, which were then set to music as a song-cycle by Robert Schumann in 1840 – his opus 42. The cycle consists of eight poems, together telling a story from the protagonist first meeting her love, following through their marriage and to his death. Graham intersperses lyrically complementary pieces by Grieg, Fauré, Mahler, Debussy and others to complement Schumann’s theme. She is scheduled to perform a similar program at Carnegie Hall and the New England Conservatory in the days surrounding her Kalamazoo appearance.

A pre-concert talk by Carl Ratner, Professor of Voice at Western Michigan University, will be held from 7 to 7:45 PM in the Dalton Center Lecture Hall preceding the concert. Free to ticket holders.