In his Art of the Song recital, he brings his gentle, solid timbre and command of German to repertory that should fit it well: the 20 songs of Schubert's "Schöne Müllerin," the first of that composer's two major song cycles to poems by Wilhelm Müller.
At the Amsterdam Mahler Festival in May 1920, Mahler's completed symphonies and his major song cycles were presented over nine concerts given by the Concertgebouw Orchestra and choruses, under Mengelberg's direction.
Part of the excitement came from the occasion: the first program in the orchestra's complete survey of the nine Mahler symphonies along with the Adagio from the unfinished 10th and major orchestral song cycles.
Schubert has the program to himself on Saturday night, with his late Piano Sonata in A major and the song cycle "Schwanengesang" (with the baritone David Williams).
An album by the Philadelphia Orchestra, in glorious full gleam, on the New World Records label, features not only Druckman's Viola Concerto (1978), a gripping and dramatic piece, but also "Counterpoise" (1994), a lovely orchestral song cycle that was his last major work.
His new piece, "Seht die Sonne," takes its title from Schoenberg's early, ultra-Romantic song cycle "Gurre-Lieder," with its C-major paean to the sun; here, a beamlike drone on C sets the music in motion, together with a swaggering, almost bluesy theme in the horns.
The major work on his program tonight is a 60-minute song cycle from 1994 by the composer Jorge Martin, "The Glass Hammer: Scenes From Childhood Kept Against Forgetting," on poems by Andrew Hudgins.
In all, Sullivan's artistic output included 23 operas, 13 major orchestral works, eight choral works and oratorios, two ballets, one song cycle, incidental music to several plays, numerous hymns and other church pieces, and a large body of songs, parlour ballads, part songs, carols, and piano and chamber pieces.
Feb. 10 at 7 30: It's hats off to the seventh Prince Lobkowicz, who commissioned, among other great works, Haydn's Quartet in F Major, Op. 77, No. 2, and Beethoven's "Harp" Quartet, Op. 74, Quartet in B-Flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6, and "An die Ferne Geliebte," the first important song cycle.
Works given special attention include Shubert's lieder, especially "Die schone Mullerin" and "Winterreise" (Schubert invented the form of the epic song cycle), his chamber music, especially his String Quintet, quartets included the G-Major and the "Death and the Maiden," sonatas -- especially the piano sonata in B-Flat -- and symphonies, especially the "Unfinished" and the Ninth.
