„Alles wieder gut“

Musicbanda Franui and bass baritone Florian Boesch release a new CD on October 23rd 2020. Significantly, it's called “All was well again”.

Three words from Mahler's “The Two Blue Eyes of My Darling” form the headline for the ultimate Liederabend by Florian Boesch, one of the most sought-after Lieder-interpreters of our time, and the iconic ten-piece, three-decade old Musicbanda Franui from the wilderness of East Tyrol. Famous and lesser known romantic songs from Schubert, Schumann, Mahler et al. are taken apart and re-assembled. The melodies remain the same, but the garb in which they re-appear is brand new: Harp, dulcimer, zither, double bass, accordion and a whole flock of brass and wind instruments swoop down on these songs. And, go figure, the hundred plus years old songs about love and loss touch us profoundly and have truths to tell us. (col legno)

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Here you can pre-listen the whole album:

A lack of fresh air

by Christian Seiler

The classical art song is in a difficult position. It leads a museum-like existence. It does appear regularly in concert halls, when a new singer wants to offer his or her interpretation of “A Winter Journey” or “Songs of a Wayfarer” to the world, but it suffers from a lack of fresh air. [... But] Franui have, for example, made Schubert their own in such a way that I start up with surprise when I hear one of these deeply intimate melodies, interpreted by Franui with all the persuasive power of intelligibility, played in its original form. [...]

Are Franui always subtle in their interpretations? No, thank goodness. Do they take venture to understand Schubert better than anyone else? Yes, of course. And why? Because they are right to do so. [...In addition,] Florian Boesch is a singer who commands his register – bass-baritone – so well that he had no other option than to become a global star.
[... Together,] they treat the lieder they have selected with respect, or rather with contemporary naturalness, not with that polite distance in the face of traditional clichés which has become the norm.

A Very Offal Liederabend

by Andreas Schett

Over the course of the 27 years that we, the members of Franui, have been making music, we’ve managed to hop from one cow pie to the next. It all began with playing dirges and funeral marches in the small East Tyrolean village of Innervillgraten, which is home to more or less all of us. [...]

We would tell the audience that the famous singer that was to have performed with us couldn’t find the entrance to the valley and never arrived. So we had to do it all ourselves. That’s how we titled our concerts, too: “Liederabend for Musicbanda and a missing singer”. [...]
And now the singer has arrived. He’s found his way to us, after all! His name is Florian Boesch. [...] We are united in our lust for the liberty to really live the songs of Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Mahler (and all those that might still come our way) – and do so as we see fit: Which is to say to send them through the wringer; channel them through our brains, hearts, lungs and even our tummy ... and see what comes out at the other, metaphorical end. [...]

The songs of Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Mahler now form a kind of hybrid song cycle. The romantic journey of living and suffering that THE – I very nearly wrote “OUR” – singer endures, is a journey that moves us still today. Joseph von Eichendorff captured it inimitably in just two lines: “We yearn for home / and yet know not whereto?”