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

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. This video clip is from the ovation following her second performance of the piece at the Berlin Philharmonie. Kagel himself was supposed to have conducted the performance as he did in Bonn but he was taken ill and sadly passed away thereafter. There's more about this piece in a piece Ms. Behrens herself wrote for FanFaire HERE.