Erwin Belakowitsch - Drang in die Ferne (2017)

The rise of the art song as genre toward the end of the 18th century was favored not only by developments in the world of music but also by the emergence of a bourgeois culture, and is until today one of continuous popularity. This new release by baritone Erwin Belakowitsch and pianist Christoph Berner offers an exciting selection of songs by Franz Schubert, from the Reisebuch aus den osterreichischen Alpen, Op. 62 by Ernst Krenek and Gustav Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. The dramatization of intertwined songs allows a direct comparison of the diverse handling of the composer's take on the subject, Longing to Escape, which conveys melancholy and pain as well as confidence and hope. Erwin Belakowitsch was a soloist with the Vienna Boys' Choir and studied singing at Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts. Alongside numerous other prizes, in 2006 he won the International Joseph Suder Lied Competition and in 2010 the International Johannes Brahms Competition. Song recitals and opera productions brought him to Japan, Korea, South America and Australia, where he also taught singing at Sydney University of Music. Christoph Berner has appeared with prestigious orchestras such as: the Orchestre National du Toulouse, the Moscow Tchaikovsky Orchestra, Bergen and Dresden Philharmonic and with such conductors as Neeme Jarvi, Michel Plasson and Vladimir Fedosejev.