Klopstock’s Sound and Ossian’s Voices

Song Recital and Lesson

Poems by Klopstock, Macpherson, Hunter, set to music by Bach, Gluck, Haydn, and Schubert, sung by Tia Pikija (soprano) and Daniel Sauer (baritone), mdw – universität für musik und darstellende kunst wien, class Florian Boesch; Jelena Pešić (piano), mdw, class Markus Hadulla

Lecture in German by Michael Auer

Klopstock is European literature’s first star. In trying to tap into the sonic sources of poetry, he vies with its allegedly oldest and most august models: with Homer and, later, with Ossian. This evokes voices echoing through the millennia. Klopstock’s unique sound enthused the literature and music of his times. 

Michael Auer teaches Comparative Literature at the Szondi Institute of the FU in Berlin. Before he was professor for German Literature at the University of Vienna. Poetic sound studies are one of his areas of study. See: Souveräne Stimmen (Wallstein 2024) and Law in Suspension (Edition AVL 2026). He is editor of the Klopstock Handbuch (Metzler 2023).

An Event in the context of the exhibition Wild Apollo’s Arrows. Klopstock Cult & Ossian Fever in cooperation with mdw – universität für musik und darstellende kunst wien.

With kind support from the KLAVIER GALERIE.

Programme

16:30 h 

Paintings Gallery
Curator's tour with Alexander Roob on the exhibition Wild Apollo’s Arrows. Klopstock Cult & Ossian Fever

18:30 h
Prospekthof

Welcome
Sabine Folie, Director Art Collections

Introduction
Alexander Roob, Curator

Lecture by Michael Auer alternating with singing and piano

Son of the Eternal and the Mortal, 1785
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (composition)
Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (text)
Daniel Sauer (bariton)
Jelena Pešić (piano)

The Wanderer, 1795
The Spirit’s Song, 1795
Joseph Haydn (composition)
Anne Hunter (text) 
Daniel Sauer (bariton)
Tia Pikija (soprano) 
Jelena Pešić (piano)

Kolma’s Lament, 1815
Franz Schubert (composition)
James Macpherson (text)
Tia Pikija (soprano)
Jelena Pešić (piano)

Ossian’s Song After the Fall of Nathos, 1815
Franz Schubert (composition)
James Macpherson (text)
Daniel Sauer (baritone)
Jelena Pešić (piano)