Dr Natasha Loges (Royal College of Music) and Stephan Loges (Brass-Baritone)

Eighteenth-century Lyrics in Nineteenth-century Dress: Brahms’s Settings of Ludwig Hölty’s Poetry (Lecture-recital)

Brahms’s poetic interests ranged far beyond the tastes of most of his contemporaries. One striking inclusion in his panoply of song-poets is the eighteenth-century lyric poet Ludwig Hölty, who specialised in beautifully crafted imitations of the strict forms of Classical Graeco-Roman poetry.

This lecture-recital explores why Brahms turned to this poetry, how he responded to its particular formal challenges, and how these settings raise challenging issues of genre and authorship today. It is illustrated by songs by Brahms, Fanny Mendelssohn and Schubert performed by Stephan Loges and Natasha Loges.