Musical Sunday

Six years after Weber’s *Der Freischütz*, Franz Schubert composed the song cycle *Winterreise*, a work that is also considered a cornerstone of Romantic music but takes a completely new approach. Schubert’s first-person narrator, an unnamed wanderer, is not only despairing of reality but also finds no solace in nature anymore. This is an extreme form of disillusionment rooted in the social experiences of the Restoration era—and this applies to the composer just as much as to the often-underestimated lyricist Wilhelm Müller. Even the very first performances of this “cycle of eerie songs” (Schubert) left a lasting impression, and little has changed in that regard to this day. In light of the tendencies toward alienation in the present, one could even say: *Winterreise* is the work of the hour.

Two music enthusiasts will take the audience on a deep dive into the works: Marcus Imbsweiler is a novelist and short-story writer; Dr. Timo Jouko Herrmann is a composer, violinist, and guest conductor of the Heidelberg Symphony Orchestra.

A collaboration between Literaturherbst Heidelberg and DAI as part of the Literaturherbst special series “220 Years of Heidelberg Romanticism”