For some weeks now, I have been listening to Winterreise in an intense and intensive way, because, within ten days, I have found three CD in my letterbox: two of them recently released, those of Jonas Kaufmann and Helmut Deutsch and Gerald Finley and Julius Drake, and one released two years ago, by Florian Boesch and Malcolm Martineau. It would be just natural to think that this post results from a possible overdose but it's not, it was scheduled on my blog's notebook a year ago, when the Gran Teatre del Liceu presented the 2012-2013 season. Because on 28th March, if everything goes to plan, Jonas Kaufmann and Helmut Deutsch will be performing Winterreise in Barcelona (it's not a coincidence, they are doing a tour).
Last year we joined the Catalan Poetry on the Internet Day with a poem by Josep Janés and a song by Frederic Mompou, Damunt de tu només les flors. We said back then that it was the most well-known song in Catalan, this year the post is devoted to Jacint Verdaguer (1845-1902), one of the greatest poets in Catalan literature. Verdaguer, a catholic priest, was very popular all along his life, and people used to call him “Mossèn Cinto”, Father Cinto, being Cinto short for Jacint. To give you a rough idea, the number of songs composed from his poems are comparable to Goethe's songs.
As a young singer at the age of 23, I had the opportunity to take my first master class with the famous Hans Hotter. The theme of the course was: “Schubert, Wolf and Strauss”. I prepared six songs by each composer and went to Austria where the course took place. I was full of anticipation for the masterclass. In my bag I had, among others, my favorite Schubert songs Ganymed and Prometheus, some Goethe -Lieder by Wolf and some Strauss “classics” such as Die Nacht, Traum durch die Dämmerung and of course Zueignung, probably the most famous song by Richard Strauss.
- “Know’st thou the land?” 
Some weeks ago we talked about the bad auditory memory, about how we lose our ability to evoke sounds that we heard only once, no matter how impressive they were. On that occasion I was afraid that the post was too long so I left something out for a new one; this week I go back to this subject although, I'm afraid this post seems to be written by Captain Obvious. Anyway, if you get tired while reading, please don't give up without listening to the song because, believe me, it's very worth it.
