Coffee & Classical | Winterreise - Daan Boertien and Michael Wilmering
Winterreise (Winter Journey) is a cycle of 24 songs by Franz Schubert for voice and piano set to poems by Wilhelm Müller. The first "Abtheilung" of 12 songs was completed in February 1827, the second with the remaining 12 in October that year.
The story seems relatively simple. A young man makes a journey after a rejection. In the 24th song, he meets the Leiermann, the playing man with the hurdy-gurdy, a personification of death. Many analyses of the Winterreise have been published. According to almost all commentaries, the winter journey symbolises man's search for himself.
Daan Boertien is a Dutch concert pianist who specialises in song accompaniment. He recently performed with internationally celebrated singers such as Benjamin Appl, Roderick Williams and Thomas Oliemans. His debut CD with baritone Michael Wilmering was praised by the international press. Since 2020, Daan Boertien has been an Associate Artist at the Dutch National Opera Studio.
At the age of 10, Daan was accepted at the Young Musician's Academy of the Conservatory of Tilburg, where he was taught by Jelena Bazova. He then studied with David Kuyken at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. Since then, he has won many awards and performed at festivals such as the International Song Festival Zeist, the Grachtenfestival Amsterdam and the Prinsengracht Concert. He also gave concerts in the Concertgebouw, TivoliVredenburg, the National Opera, Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ and the Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle in Hamburg. He can also be regularly heard on NPO Radio 4 and seen on television, including on Podium Witteman.
Michael Wilmering is a baritone and obtained his bachelor and master cum laude at the Utrecht Conservatory of Music. After his studies, he was attached to the Opera Studio in Stuttgart. He then continued as a freelance singer, allowing him to develop broadly in various fields. At the Netherlands Opera, Michael is a welcome guest and has now sung in 15 productions. At the DNO's Opera Forward Festival he can be seen annually in all kinds of newly composed operas, this his speciality. At Opera Zuid he also often appears on stage, singing in Die Zauberflöte (Papageno), among others.
Besides opera, Michael loves the Lied repertoire immensely, for which he received many prizes at the International Vocal Competition. Last year, together with Daan Boertien, he released his first CD which was received with praise: die Winterreise. This year, Schumann's Dichterliebe will be recorded with Nicolas van Poucke.
Occasionally, Michael also creates his own performance. This he did together with dancer Ahmad Joudeh at the O. Festival in Rotterdam, for which he received an Award.
To complete the whole picture, Michael also sings a lot of oratorio and concert work in between his productions. In these, he only speaks the language of music. For instance, he sang in Die Frau Ohne Schatten with Yannick Néget-Séguin and the Johannes and Matthaus Passion in many places.
We are proud to welcome them with Winterreise!
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