大象传媒

Sarah Walker presents Schubert Plus, with music performed by the soprano Soraya Mafi with pianist Ian Tindale, recorded at St Mary's Church, Hay-on-Wye, during the 2023 Hay Festival. Much of this concert explores the meeting of eastern and western cultures. Goethe created a collection of poems published as his Book of Suleika, much of which was influenced by the Persian poet Hafis. It tells the love story between the poet Hatem, and Suleika. There is a parallel here between Goethe himself, and the Austrian actress and dancer Marianne von Willemer, who in their private letters to each other, called themselves Hatem and Suleika. Soraya Mafi explores a number of these Suleika settings, composed by Schubert, Schumann, and Fanny Mendelssohn.

Further settings of texts by Goethe are performed in the music of Wolf, and Mafi continues her Eastern and Western journey with the music of Beamish, who sets a poem by Hafis, and Kashini鈥檚 setting of a text by the 13th-century Iranian poet Rumi. The concert also includes with a sequence of songs by French composers, including Faur茅鈥檚 depiction of the roses of Isfahan, and Bizet鈥檚 Farewell of the Arabian hostess.

Soraya Mafi, soprano
Ian Tindale, piano

Schumann: Lied der Suleika, Op 25 No 9 (Myrten)
Fanny Mendelssohn: Suleika II, H-U 210
Schubert: Suleika I, D720
Fanny Mendelssohn: Suleika III, H-U 306
Schubert: Suleika II, D717
Schubert: Geheimes, D719
Schubert: Versunken, D715
Beamish: The Nightingale
Kashani: The Heart Snatcher
Saint-Sa毛ns: Tournoiement, Op 26 No 6 (M茅lodies persanes)
Faur茅: Les roses d鈥橧spahan, Op 39 No 4
Bizet: Adieux de l鈥檋么tesse arabe
Wolf: Als ich auf dem Euphrat schiffte
Wolf: Hochbegl眉ckt in deiner liebe

Produced by Luke Whitlock