Todesfuge
Sunday, March 6, 2011 at 11:18AM 2010 | baritone and cello
Poem by Paul Celan, composed at the request of baritone Wolfgang Holzmair. This is my first dual language setting and the translation I use is by John Felstiner. The settings are slightly different, in order to best accommodate the prosody of each language.
Baritone Wolfgang Holzmair and cellist Sophie Wieder-Atherton premiered the songs in NYC on February 21, 2012, in DC on February 23, 2012 and in London at Wigmore Hall on July 14, 2012. Please see a video of the NYC premiere here.
ERRATA: Prior English version had a typo in m. 11 voice: the last word of that measure should be "air" not "grave" — and the word "ist" should be "is" in m. 187.
The song was recorded by baritone Randall Scarlata and cellist Thomas Kraines and is available on Naxos' release: "Living in the Body — Songs of Lori Laitman"