Alles Wieder Gut – Holland Festival

Franui performs the great repertoire of the period from the Baroque to the late Romantic era, but with a twist. This ‘musicbanda’ from East Tyrol performs its own interpretations of songs by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Mahler, and Purcell. With a line-up that includes brass instruments, dulcimer, harp, and violin, the musicians create a sound that combines classical music with folk music and jazz. This enables Franui – whose Mahlerlieder was a success at the 2013 festival – to explore unfamiliar facets of this famous repertoire. They are collaborating with Florian Boesch, the bass-baritone who was a phenomenal Wozzeckat last year’s festival, and video artist Jonas Dahlberg, whose film set shows the relentless passing of time. The songs emphasise impermanence. Let Franui bring consolation. Programme

The Austrian baritone Florian Boesch had a big success at the 2016 Holland Festival with his performance in the title role of Alban Berg's Wozzeck. He will be returning to Amsterdam this year with a programme of lieder. It is a repertoire that's close to his heart, as evidenced by his Schubert and Schumann recordings. In

Alles Wieder Gut, Boesch gives the romantic song a different flavour. The striking Austrian ensemble Franui work with him and the Swedish artist Jonas Dahlberg has designed the show.

The small village of Innervillgraten is High in the East Tyrolean Alps, at 1402 metres above sea level. This hamlet, with a population of 1000, is the birthplace of Franui, a ten-piece 'musicbanda'. In 1993, they converted a local hay barn into a rehearsal space where they could come together to play Alpine folk music. A quarter of a century later, Franui are a hit on the international concert and festival circuit, with their quirky reworkings of romantic repertoire.

In 2013, the ensemble made its debut at the Holland Festival with a programme centred around Gustav Mahler. The composer wrote his final scores in the mountain village of Toblach (now Dobbiaco), just one mountain pass away from Franui's home base in the Tyrolean Alps. 'We suspect that Mahler stole our music back then. We're now stealing it back again', Andreas Schett, Franui composer and trumpet player commented in De Volkskrant at the time.

'We want to knock Lieder off its pedestal', Schett sums up Franui's musical vision. 'We want to give the harsh, the trivial, the raw and the unpolished a place in this music again.' In Alles Wieder Gut , Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen can be heard alongside Schumann's Der arme Peter, and Schubert's Abendstem can be heard alongside Brahms's Über die Heide. A contemporary Lieder evening centred around timeless themes: life, love, suffering and death. Visual artist Jonas Dahlberg gave shape to the theme of finiteness in his own way by designing a 'transient stage set' for Franui and Boesch. Behind the musicians, a large projection screen shows a bedroom in shades of black and white that fades away almost imperceptibly.

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music Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Franz Schubert, Henry Purcell composition/arrangements Markus Kraler, Andreas Schett video Jonas Dahlberg bass-bariton Florian Boesch performance Franui clarinet Johannes Eder, Romed Hopfgartner bass klarinet Johannes Eder tuba Andreas Fuetsch alto saxophone Romed Hopfgartner double bass Markus Kraler accordion Markus Kraler harp Angelika Rainer cithara Angelika Rainer hammered dulcimer Bettina Rainer vocals Bettina Rainer, Markus Rainer, Angelika Rainer, Andreas Schett trumpet Markus Rainer, Andreas Schett musical direction Andreas Schett valve trombone Martin Senfter violin Nikolai Tunkowitsch

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