The Erlkings
Song without tails and cummerbund

The fact that there is much more that unites than divides nations, genres, traditions and even eras in music may sound generalized, worn out and banal. Even confusing. Because if everything is connected to everything else, where is the orientation? The Viennese formation The Erlkings is a perfect example of a case of seemingly inextricable connections. But her way of playing the song genre works amazingly directly, because it sounds strange and yet familiar. And not a bit banal.

The head of the Erlkings, singer-songwriter Bryan Benner, describes himself as an "American born troubadour" and is a self-confessed Viennese, like Hanseatic-born Brahms, the fixed star of this edition of the song festival. "Troubadour" Benner takes the seriousness with which classical music is performed in Vienna in his own way: "I was tempted to play with it, to create a vacuum in which humor and lightness can arise."

Instead of piano, the Erlkings perform with guitar, cello, tuba and percussion, and sing in English. In Heidelberg, they investigate what folk songs in the classical and romantic periods are all about, arranging and interpreting them in their own way.

Concert with intermission


The Erlkings

Bryan Benner
guitar & voice

Ivan Turkalj
violoncello

Simon Teurezbacher
tuba

Thomas Toppler
drums & vibraphone


Joseph Haydn
A very ordinary story
Consolation of unhappy love
The Landlust
In praise of laziness
Sailor's Song

Franz Schubert
Singing on the water
The youth at the brook II
The trout
Erlkönig
Gretchen on the spinning wheel

Robert Schumann
Dichterliebe op. 48 (selection):
In the beautiful month of May
Sprouting from my tears
The rose, the lily
When I look into your eyes
I want to immerse my soul
In the Rhine, in the holy river
I do not resent

Johannes Brahms
German folk songs WoO 33 (selection):
Da unten im Tale
So I want to be fresh and cheerful
All my thoughts
Should the moon
There lives a fiddler
In the silent night.



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