Franz-Josef Selig & Gerold Huber by Various, Déa 09 Noll 2021, Ó (2021/2021), La Monnaie, Brussels, Belgium

WHO RIDES, SO LATE, THROUGH NIGHT AND WIND? — GOETHE (ERLKING) Despite the existence of a repertoire of profoundly beautiful songs for bass voices, it is rare to hear them in recitals. That alone would make this evening a real experience. But when the bass singer happens to be Franz-Josef Selig… The renowned German lied singer has prepared a sophisticated literary programme that spans the long nineteenth century: from the ‘Gothic’ ballads about kings, death, and decay composed by Carl Loewe, via a number of rarely heard lieder by Hugo Wolf setting texts by Goethe, and the expressive proto-modernism of Rudi Stephan, whose promising career ended abruptly in the trenches in 1915.