Schubert
Schwanengesang (Swan Song), D. 957
8. Der Atlas (Atlas)
9. Ihr Bild (Her Portrait)
10. Das Fischermädchen (The Fischermaiden)
11. Die Stadt (The City)
12. Am Meer (By the Sea)
13. Der Doppelgänger (The Doppelgänger)

Wolf
Mädchen mit dem roten Mündchen (Maiden with the Red Lips)

Wolf
Du bist wie eine Blume (You are Like a Flower)

Wolf
Wenn ich in deine Augen seh’ (When I Look into Your Eyes)

Wagner
Die beiden Grenadiere (The Two Grenadiers), WWV 60

Schumann
Die beiden Grenadiere (The Two Grenadiers), Op. 49:1

Schumann
Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Love), Op. 48
1. Im wunderschönen Monat Mai (In the Wondrous Month of May)
2. Aus meinen Tränen sprießen (From My Tears there will Spring)
3. Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube, die Sonne (Rose, Lily, Dove, Sun)
4. Wenn ich in deine Augen seh’ (When I Look into Your Eyes)
5. Ich will meine Seele tauchen (Let Me Bathe My Soul)
6. Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome (In the Rhine, in the Holy River)
7. Ich grolle nicht (I Bear No Grudge)
8. Und wüßten’s die Blumen, die kleinen (If the Little Flowers Knew)
9. Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen (What a Fluting, What a Scraping)
10. Hör' ich das Liedchen klingen (When I Hear the Little Song)
11. Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen (A Boy Loves a Girl)
12. Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen (One Bright Summer Morning)
13. Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet (I Wept in My Dream)
14. Allnächtlich im Traume (Nightly in My Dreams)
15. Aus alten Märchen (From Fairy Tales of Old)
16. Die alten, bösen Lieder (The Bad Old Songs)

Featuring:

Gábor Bretz – bass baritone

Emese Virág – piano

Presenter:

Sándor Kovács

Gábor Bretz, Müpa Budapest’s 2026/2027 Artist of the Season, was born in Budapest in 1974. He began his vocal studies in Los Angeles under Stephan Czovek, before continuing his education in Budapest, with Albert Antalffy, and later at the Béla Bartók Conservatory with Mária Fekete. The bass-baritone graduated in 2004 from the opera faculty of the Liszt Academy as a pupil of Erika Sziklay and Sándor Sólyom-Nagy, with Albert Antalffy as his vocal coach. In 2005, he won the Maria Callas Singing Competition in Athens. He made his debuts at La Scala in Milan and at the Salzburg Festival in 2007. Over the past two decades, he has been a regular guest of the world’s most renowned opera houses, from Vienna to Tokyo and from Paris to New York. He has performed under such conductors as Kent Nagano, Simon Rattle, Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel and Ádám Fischer. Equally at home on the operatic stage and performing in concert, his rich repertoire encompasses works by Mozart, Beethoven, Rossini, Donizetti, Erkel, Verdi, Wagner, Gounod, Bizet, Boito, Janáček, Puccini, Bartók, Szokolay and János Vajda.

© Szilvia Csibi, Müpa Budapest

Emese Virág completed her studies in Pécs before furthering her education in Budapest. She is a highly regarded piano accompanist and soloist who performs regularly both abroad and in Hungary. In addition to the classical and Romantic repertoire and 20th-century music, she also enjoys performing contemporary compositions. She is a répétiteur at the vocal faculty of the Liszt Academy.

Klára Kolonits’ interview with Gábor Bretz:

For his thematic song recital, Gábor Bretz will present a special programme of works inspired by the poems of the great German Romantic poet Heinrich Heine (1797–1856). Heine was a prominent 19th-century representative of the sense of inner conflict and irony as a counterpoint to emotion. The programme features six Heine songs by Franz Schubert (1797–1828) from the posthumous Schwanengesang cycle, the complete Dichterliebe cycle by Robert Schumann (1810–1856), and works by Hugo Wolf (1860–1903) adding further colour to the stylistic palette. A particular delicacy will be the consecutive performances of settings of Die beiden Grenadiere (The Two Grenadiers) by Schumann and Richard Wagner (1813–1883). In their songs, both composers quote the historic melody of the Marseillaise. Other points of contact further enhance the fascinating quality of the programme: the recital includes a song by Wolf (Wenn ich in deine Augen seh’) whose text was also set by Schumann in his Dichterliebe cycle, and another one (Du bist wie eine Blume) whose text inspired several other composers, including Schumann, Liszt, Bruckner and Rachmaninoff.

Die beiden Grenadiere by Wagner…

…and by Schumann