HILDEGARD BEHRENS: Mitternachtstück
[Midnight Piece for voices and instruments on four fragments
from the diary of Robert Schumann]
composed and conducted by Mauricio Kagel / Beethovenfest 2007 - Bonn, GERMANY

video: courtesy CFI

In September 2007, HILDEGARD BEHRENS performed for the first time with the German-Argentine avant-garde composer MAURICIO KAGEL (1931-2008) at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn. This video clip is from the concert in which Ms. Behrens "recited" in Sprechstimme fashion the text of "Mitternachtstück," a Kagel composition in four movements, based on diary entries by the young Robert Schumann. Parts of the video have voice-over commentaries (in German) by Ms. Behrens herself made during an interview for a one-hour documentary film on HILDEGARD BEHRENS, "Ausdruck und Schönheit", by Eckhard Schmidt which was broadcast nationally on German TV in early 2009. There's more about this performance in a piece Ms. Behrens herself wrote for FanFaire HERE.