Christoph Prégardien’s appearances at the Festival are always memorable highlights. For the first time this year, he appears with the brilliant German pianist, composer and improviser Michael Gees, with whom he has a long-standing partnership and many acclaimed recordings.

They pivot from our earlier focus on Beethoven – with a performance of one of his most popular songs, Adelaide – to Schubert. At the age of 18, Schubert set Schiller’s thrilling epic ballad Die Burgschaft (‘The Pledge’). It is a model of exciting storytelling and the most popular of Schubert’s early large-scale songs. They then perform Schwanengesang, the collection of Schubert’s last songs: settings of Heine and Rellstab. These songs are the pinnacle of Schubert’s achievements and we could not hope for a more perfect way to draw this year’s Festival to a close.

ARTIST Q&A
After a short break at the end of the concert, there will be a Q&A with the artists. Please email any questions you have during the interval or at the end of the concert (songconnections@oxfordlieder.co.uk) or post them on social media (#OLF2020), and the artists will answer as many as time allows.

This concert will be streamed completely live from the Holywell Music Room. Shortly afterwards, it will also be available to watch again (using the same ticket and link) until 1 November 2020.