Carl Michael Bellmann: Fredmanns Episteln
A tribute to the Swedish national poet of the 18th century
Of all the great national poets, whether Cervantes, Shakespeare, Goethe or Tolstoy, none was so dearly loved by the people at large as Sweden’s Baroque poet-singer, actor and musician, Carl Michael Bellmann (1740-1795). In these extremely lively songs with their closely matching words and music, Fredmann – the poet’s alter ego – proclaims the “gospel of riotous life”. His musical borrowings range from Handel to Haydn and Mozart and the classical French song collections of his time. The Epistles became known in Germany thanks first and foremost to the ingenious performances of Manfred Krug, on which the programme of this concert is based. But Klaus Adolphi adds his own settings and recitations of various Bellmann texts