All Was Well Again | Franui | Florian Boesch, baritone | Jonas Dahlberg, screening

What happens if a ten-piece ensemble from the Austrian mountains, that has made its name with interpretations of Schubert-, Schumann-, Brahms-, and Mahler Songs, shares the stage with one of the most distinguished Lieder-singers of our time and backed up by one of the more exciting video artists of his generation? A new kind of Liederabend is born. Up front and center: Florian Boesch – internationally celebrated baritone, a strong character of solid Viennese rearing. Surrounding him are Musicbanda Franui, who are tackling the 19th century genre of art song with their assortment of instruments, which ranges from folk harp and dulcimer to zither, violins, double bass, accordion and plenty of brass. For all this, the well-regarded Swedish artist Jonas Dahlberg has created a novel set and space for the musicians. What have we got here? A bedroom in black and white? A freeze-frame? The audience eventually realizes that something isn’t right. The disalignment is subtle at first; the opacification creeps in; distortions – imperceptible at first – become notable.

The backrest of a chair – facing the audience – melts away slowly. The beside-lamp, the bookshelf, the duvet, the bedframe – everything dematerializes. The room, perfectly familiar, melts away before our eyes – until there is nothing left but the walls. All awhile, the audience is listening to someone who sings about life, love, and loss. On top of the world one minute, in the depths of despair the next. Everyone is facing their own mortality. And in the end, just like in Gustav Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer, “Just when I didn’t know what life might bring / Everything and all was well ag’in!”