Vivid verbal imagery, romantic evocations of distant lands, and the tragic figures of Gretchen and Mignon belong to this heady blend of songs to texts by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The poet's ability to view aspects of the human condition from apparently infinite perspectives inspired countless settings of his words to music.
The soprano Elizabeth Watts and pianist Roger Vignoles explore the enduring legacy of Goethe's writing and his influence on composers as different as Schubert and Tchaikovsky, Glinka and Duparc.