Julia Küßwetter & Georg Schütz - Pauline - Songs for Richard's Wife (2019)

Pauline is the musical portrait of the gifted, unconventional and unique woman in the songs of her husband Richard Strauss.
Richard Strauss became acquainted with Pauline de Ahna - a valued young singer from Ingoldstadt, when they were just beginning to establish their musical careers. Richard took his first job as Kapellmeister in Weimar and took Pauline there. He also recommended her to Bayreuth, where she sang Elisabeth in Tannhäuser. From this common time the girls' flowers op. 22 come. We owe most of Pauline's songwriting to Richard Strauss, who often interpreted her husband's songs on concert tours.
The soprano Julia Küßwetter, together with the pianist Georg Schütz, designs with great dedication and stylistic certainty this unique, charming homage to a pugnacious composer's wife. This makes you want to pay more attention to the song composer Richard Strauss!
Julia Küsswetter, soprano studied at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin, at the University of Graz, at the Academy of Music and Theater at the Bavarian Theater Academy under Norma Sharp, Josef Loibl, Semjon Skigin and Helmut Deutsch and graduated with honors.
Subsequently, she received a scholarship from the Deutsches Bühnenverein and was a finalist in several international competitions, such as the Hans Gabor Belvedere Competition in Vienna.
She received decisive impulses in masterclasses with Ruth Ziesak, Emma Kirkby and Barbara Schlick. After her studies, she was engaged at the Chemnitz Opera and designed several world premieres at the Biennale in Munich.
Invitations to the Hamburg State Opera, the Zurich Opera, the DUCTAC in Dubai, the Bad Hersfeld Festival and the International Bach Festival in Schaffhausen followed by a recital in New York.
Julia Küsswetter works u.a. with the Munich Philharmonic, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Radio Orchestra, the Baroque Orchestra La Banda, the Georgian Chamber Orchestra Ingolstadt and the Southwestern German Philharmonic Orchestra Konstanz and sings under renowned conductors such as Gary Bertini and David Stahl.
Engagements have taken her across Europe, the US and the Middle East. CD recordings and radio recordings at the BR, MDR and SWR document her artistic work.
She teaches singing at the vocational school of the district of Middle Franconia as well as the music college Kaleidos in Zurich.
Georg Schütz, piano
studied with Erich Appel at the Meistersingerkonservatorium in Nuremberg, with Prof. Heinz Diehl at the Musikhochschule in Munich and with Prof. Peter Hollfelder at the Musikhochschule in Würzburg, where he graduated with a master's degree. In masterclasses with Vitaly Margulis, Michel Beroff and Jürgen Uhde, he completed his pianistic studies.
Following his studies, accompanied by numerous prizes and scholarships, he began extensive concert work as a soloist and chamber musician on a national and international level. Eg at Musica Viva, Munich; Schumann Festival, Dusseldorf; Max Reger Symposium, Paris; Piano Night in the Gasteig, Munich; Festival East-West, Ulm.
Joint concerts and master classes with Prof. Ingeborg Hallstein (International Music Seminar Weimar) and Prof. Hanno Blaschke (master classes Villa Marteau and Bavarian Music Academy Marktoberdorf), represent further stages of his pedagogical and artistic activities.
He teaches as a lecturer for piano, song accompaniment and chamber music at the Musikhochschule in Würzburg and at the Berufsfachschule für Musik in Dinkelsbühl.
His discography includes diversi