In 2019, cellist Doris Hochscheid (yes: she is my sister!), pianist Frans van Ruth and I started exploring pieces for mezzo-soprano, cello and piano. We discovered – we have to confess: with some surprise! – a substantial amount of beautiful and interesting repertoire for this combination.

Since then, we have been able to fill our suitcases with plural concert programs of splendid music for mezzosoprano, cello and piano, with a multitude of nationalities and in five different languages. The repertoire is mostly characterised by the late-romantic style.
In 2023, we premiered a new and favourite trio program around the themes “Moon” and “Night”, featuring the brand new Lied“I watched the Moon around the House”, composed especially for us by  Max Knigge.

“Zig-zag through Europe”: please travel with us through a vast number of european, perhaps better to say: occidental countries…

Some of the “Lieder” have plural nationalities themselves. For example, the late-romantic danish composer Jakob Fabricius wrote a gloomy, nordic Lied on poetry by the early-romantic french author Marceline Delbordes-Valmore: below a live video recording made during our concert in Beetsterzwaag, The Netherlands (2019).

In our concerts, a special role is reserved for the  “Deutsche Liebeslieder Opus 20”, for voice and piano, by dutch composer Leander Schlegel, whose music was highly appreciated in the Vienna of the first twentieth century and performed in the most important Viennese concert halls. The Opus 20 tells a story that constitutes one of the most vital themes of romantic german poetry and music: Peter loves Grete, but Grete marries another- for Peter only the grave remains. Below “Die Nachtigall”, number 11 from the Liedcycle that lasts about one hour in total, recorded back in 2013 during our concert in the Vredenburg-Leeuwenberg Hall in Utrecht.

And of course every concert is an opportunity to hear the vastly lauded duo Doris & Frans! Doris Hochscheid and Frans van Ruth, founders of  “Cellosonate Nederland”, received the prestigious  ECHO Klassik Prize in 2016 for their monumental CD series  “Dutch Cellosonatas” (Label MDG). In 2017, they were knighted in the Order of Oranje-Nassau as an acknowledgement of their merits for dutch music.

dorishochscheid.nl
fransvanruth.nl
cellosonate.nl
leander-schlegel.nl

Anton Arensky (1861-1906), Six Romances Op. 38 no. 2:
Landish

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869), La Captive

Aleksandr Borodin (1833-1887)
Krasawitsa ribatsjka
Razljubila krasna dewitsa
Slushaitji, padruzshinki

Gaetano Braga (1829 – 1907), L’Esule

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Zwei Gesänge Op. 91:
Gestillte Sehnsucht
Geistliches Wiegenlied

Frank Bridge (1879-1941), Three Songs for medium voice, viola and piano:
Music when soft voices die

Adolf Busch (1891-1952), Drei Lieder Op. 3a:
Nun die Schatten dunkeln
Aus den Himmelsaugen droben

Alphons Diepenbrock (1862-1921), Berceuse

Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904), Rusalka: Song to the moon

Jakob Fabricius (1840-1919), Souvenir

Joseph Hollman (1852-1926)
Quand vous me montrez une rose
Chanson d’amour

Max Knigge (*1984), I watched the moon around the house

Charles Martin Loeffler (1861-1935), Quattre Poèmes pour voix, alto e piano Op. 5:
Sérénade

Joseph Marx (1882-1964), Adagio

Jules Massenet (1842-1912)
Nuit d’Espagne
On dit
Elégie

Alfredo Piatti (1822-1901), La sera

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921), Danse Macabre

René Samson (1948-2019), The hours rise up
(voice and violoncello)

Leander Schlegel (1844-1913), Deutsche Liebeslieder Op. 20
(voice and piano)

Pier Adolfo Tirindelli (1858-1937), Mistica

Pauline Viardot (1821-1910), Sviozdi (The stars)