DIE FACKEL - another Schubertiade

Georg Nigl & Nicholas Ofczarek meet Franz Schubert and Karl Kraus

DIE FACKEL - another Schubertiade A fictitious coincidence in Vienna: Franz Schubert and Karl Kraus cross paths and arrange an evening with friends - a ping-pong of songs and words. Schubert dreams of a real setting for his songs, not a cosy Biedermeier idyll. An exchange of blows: Schubert leads the way musically, Kraus responds with a sceptical volte face.

It is possible that they will not always agree - it is about a lively dialogue. Kraus will probably not be able to refrain from making mocking remarks about Schubert's timid, glowing reveries of the beautiful miller's wife. But he was aware of the impositions of the Metternich era, from which the ‘Schwammerl’ also suffered. In the ‘Fackel’ he raged about the ‘terrible situation of lying there when the horse hooves of stupidity have passed over you’. As if he had written about Schubert.

Georg Nigl and Nicholas Ofczarek brought Hanns Eisler together with Gustav Mahler in their stirring recital at the beginning of the year and placed the grumbler Kraus in between. The explosive exchange between the three troublemakers made the dangers of our present clear in a shocking way. Reason enough for Nigl to continue his song recitals and, with Ofczarek, finally bring the humanist Kraus together with the ‘completely un-kitschy’ (Wolfgang Kos) Schubert.