SEHNSUCHT / LONGING

FRANZ SCHUBERT
Sehnsucht D 636
Nachtstück D 672
Der Pilgrim D 794
Auf dem Wasser zu singen D 774
Der Zwerg D 771
Die Sterne D 939
and other songs

María Cristina Kiehr soprano
Pablo Márquez romantic guitar

Last year, two internationally renowned artists originally from Argentina – soprano María Cristina Kiehr and guitarist Pablo Márquez – recorded and released an interpretatively unique and dramaturgically revelatory album Sehnsucht, featuring songs by Franz Schubert accompanied by authentic romantic guitar. In Schubert’s time, it was common for songs with piano accompaniment to be published with alternative guitar accompaniment, often within the same release. Schubert was no exception – thirty-four of his songs were published in this way during his lifetime, to which a further eighteen were added within five years of the composer’s death. The guitar arrangements of these accompaniments were often the work of the publishers themselves, either because they were guitarists, as in the case of Diabelli, or because they had commissioned the arrangements from experts on the instrument. Today we know of some seventy Schubert songs with arranged guitar accompaniments that have been largely neglected until now, and whose historical significance we are only beginning to discover and understand.

Pablo Márquez is considered one of the most complex musicians of our time. His broad repertoire ranges from early works for vihuela and lute to the most recent and challenging contemporary works, which are often dedicated to him. He has worked with composers such as Luciano Berio, Mauricio Kagel and György Kurtág, and has instigated the creation of more than thirty works (Zad Moultaka, Martin Matalon, Fuminori Tanada, Oscar Strasnoy, Javier Torres Maldonado, Ramón Lazkano, Arthur Kampela, etc.). He has made award-winning recordings for the renowned Munich label ECM and other major labels. He is also in great demand as a teacher, his class at the Music Academy of Basel is one of the most renowned and he gives master classes all over the world. He made his Brno debut in June 2023: in collaboration with the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of chief conductor Dennis Russell Davies, he performed Berio’s Chemins V (su Sequenza XI) for guitar and chamber orchestra.

María Cristina Kiehr is a respected performer specialising in early music. She has worked with prominent artists (Philippe Herreweghe, Franz Bruggen, Jordi Savall, Gustav Leonhardt, Nikolaus Harnoncourt…), prestigious ensembles (Hesperion XXI, Concerto Köln, Ensemble 415, Musical Seminario, Vocal Concerto, Elyma, . ..), performed in major opera productions (Orontea de Cesti in Basel, Monteverdi’s Incoronazione di Poppea in Montpellier, Vivaldi’s Dorilla in Nice …) and participated in more than a hundred recordings. She is co-founder of the Concerto Soave.