How did you feel?", Maestro Prégardien asks Anna Gebhardt, the young woman who, sitting at the piano in the canonic of Vilabertran, has just performed with Jonas Müller, an even younger baritone, the song Willkommen und Abschied (Welcome and good bye). A Schubert classic based on a Goethe poem. "I noticed that I had to wait for him, I had to go slower", he replies, referring to the singer. "Exactly". This song is about a young man who takes the horse and talks euphorically about nature, the mountain and the forest, because it turns out that – later on – he is in love, he feels like a god... but he has to leave. How can the piano have to wait for someone in this state of euphoria?
It is just one example of the subtle work that the famous tenor Christoph Prégardien has been doing this week with two young piano and voice duos from Munich. People who have finished their studies but who, due to the pandemic – in Germany culture closed for two years –, have not projected themselves professionally as expected. "They need action", says the director of the Schubertíada, Víctor Medem.
"These young people are already working and doing master's degrees, but the University of Munich is not helping them. For them it is a gift to work with an artist they have never dealt with, who tells them different things than their teacher and gives them coaching on how to face the career, how to think about programs, how to communicate to each audience. It's the step from the classroom to the stage, a professional insertion".
The Catalan festival has funded them with its program Lied the Future (a play on words between the German term for 'poetic song' and the English verb lead, which means 'to lead' or 'to lead'), which is financed by the Banc Sabadell Foundation. There are eight scholarships (the other two duos, with the Catalan voices Elionor Martínez and Mireia Tarragó, start tomorrow with the pianist Wolfram Rieger) at 3,500 euros each.
This includes the course, mentoring, kid media and a video report. They also have a recital at the Schubertíada and receive between 750 and 1,500 euros for each concert they perform on the Lied the Future circuit, which includes, for example, Life Victoria, but also the Zeist Lied festival in Holland or the Cervantes Institute from Munich The promising soprano Katja Maderer (22) already has six performances in Spain.
"The big difference with other masterclasses is that here we have much more time: we are only two duos and we have four hours a day for three days. And with Prégardien it's a unique opportunity to work in retail," says Müller. "Working on only the eight songs of the concert gives time to dive into the text, something that Prégardien attaches great importance to", agrees Gebhardt.
The majority of this Bavarian club of young people, who had known each other since university, were not fans of poetry. Now they love it. "Now I see to what extent it is a reflection of what is happening to us", confesses Maderer. His fellow pianist, Amadeus Wiesensee, thanks for his part that this course is "a safe and very intimate space, preserved even from the public, since these are not open classes", although some tourists feel attracted and enters the canon. Prégardien, who just yesterday gave an impeccable recital there, wanted to meet them in the spring, in Cologne: three days of preliminary work in order to squeeze the Catalan opportunity afterwards.
"The Lied the Future is attracting attention all over Europe - assures the tenor-. We need producers like the Schubertíada to give English, French, etc. lied and song a space; we have extraordinary and open-minded young people".
Lied courses were something exotic in Spain when, three decades ago, the Schubertíada launched them through Joventuts Musicales España and under the guidance of Rieger, the expert and "great pedagogue", recalls Dr. Roch, founder of the festival. At first they were taught at the Casino de Figueres, where there was a piano; then they went to Madrid, to Valencia... and moved to Altea because of the demand. They spent a decade at the Victòria dels Àngels Conservatory until Smuc took them in. In fact, it was the pianist Francisco Poyato, whom Rieger took years ago to Germany to study something as unknown to him as the lied, who implemented a master's degree.
And Rieger goes there every December, selecting those who will sing the following summer in Vilabertran. And if in the past the scholarship recipients had a couple of concerts from the Joventuts Musical network, since the Schubertíada took charge of the courses, things have been strengthened. Medem has linked them to Vilabertran and expanded the scholarship, bowling and teaching staff. Baritone Matthias Goerne, who along with Rieger is the festival's most loyal artist, held an audition last year to select the students. And it changed the life of the young Catalan baritone Ferran Albrich, who, by the way, will perform at the Dutch festival.
Goerne, in any case, wanted them to be local artists, because... can it sound strange that four Bavarian students of German lied are on scholarships in Catalonia to study with a German artist?
"It should not be surprising. The program is European, it comes into play on a European circuit. This week there were Bavarians who are now going to a competition in Holland or have received master classes in London or Stockholm. why not here Next week there are two Catalan and one Cantabrian woodcock, and next year there will be at least two Catalans. If we want those here to take advantage of the connections we can make on an international scale, there must also be people from outside, because things don't just work in one direction", concludes Medem.
