Tuesday, March 10, 2015
In the Salle Polyvalente from noon to 1pm
By Alexander Puhrer (vocals)
and Senka Brankovic (piano)
Before he began his studies at EPFL, Alexander Puhrer had already spent a decade as a professional classical singer. Born Austria, he grew up in Vienna and studied in the USA (at Gettysburg College and the Cincinnati College Conservatory for Music). In addition to the many roles he has interpreted on stage (Papageno, Don Giovanni, Graf Eberbach, Conte Almaviva, to cite just a few), under renowned directors of the likes of Philippe Jordan, Seiji Ozawa, Karel Chichon or Arnold Östmann, Alexander Puhrer is internationally recognized as a Lied performer. Alexander Puhrer graduated from EFPL/ETHZ in 2014 with a Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering and now works for Alpiq as Head of Nuclear Assets in the Nuclear Power Generation department.
Austrian pianist Senka Brankovic studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and at the University for Music in Vienna. Her professors were Hans Leygraf, Hans Petermandl et Heinz Medjimorec, before going on to specialize in Liedbegleitung with David Lutz. She has received many distinctions and is a laureate of the famous Bösendorfer Wettbewerb in Vienna. In 2001, Alexander Puhrer and Senka Brankovic won the Internationaler Wettbewerb für Liedkunst in Stuttgart.
Having charmed the audience at EPFL in 2012 with Die Schöne Müllerin by Franz Schubert, and again in 2013 with a recital of a smorgasbord of works, from Richard Strauss to George Gerschwin, including, among others, Francis Poulenc, the duo is back on campus to perform Die Winterreise by Franz Schubert.
Die Winterreise (1828) is a cycle of 28 Lieder published in two booklets with twelve Lieder each. The poet Wilhelm Müller wrote the 24 songs in three distinct phases. The cycle is made up of several episodes that tell of the desperate walk of a man who has been betrayed by his beloved and is without a doubt the most beautiful and saddest cycle of Lieder by Franz Schubert. Because of its density and drama, it surpasses all similar works of its kind. The very first Lied, Gute Nacht, sets the tonality: minor. In the last song, the poet asks the organ grinder, who represents death, if he can join him to put and end to it all.
Although he died at the young age of 31, Austrian composer Franz Schubert is one of the great composers of the nineteenth century and the uncontested master of the Lied.