The Wagnerians at First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn

Brooklyn Art Song Society's series exploring connections between composers throughout music history continues with Circles II: The Wagnerians. The program pairs Richard Wagner’s only song cycle, Wesendonck-Lieder, with works by Ernest Chausson, Henri Duparc, and Hugo Wolf, all of whom he deeply influenced. While Wagner remains a divisive figure in music history, his composition had an undeniable effect on future generations of composers and the evolution of vocal writing. Wagner’s use of ever-evolving leitmotivs and chromatic harmony found their way into works like Duparc’s La Vague et la Cloche, Chausson’s La Caravane, and Wolf’s groundbreaking first collection of songs, Mörike-Lieder. Soprano Tami Petty, mezzo soprano Blythe Gaissert, baritones Mario Diaz-Moresco, and Brian James Myer, and pianists Dimitri Dover and Spencer Myer perform, preceded by a lecture given by NYU history professor Larry Wolff at 7PM.