Mystics & Cynics

A concert performed by Caitríona O’Leary (voice) and Boris Bergmann (piano), featuring the newly composed song cycle Taumelnd von Glut (Reeling in the Light) which Boris wrote & dedicated to Caitríona.

Taumelnd von Glut features ten songs which Boris set to poems by the Berlin poet Otto Braun (1897 – 1918). Braun was a sensitive and prodigious talent whose life was tragically cut short in the final year of World War I. His poetry, reaching for the sublime and brimming with beautiful descriptions of natural and classical imagery, presents an uneasy and explosive mixture of self-sacrificing war heroism juxtaposed with a childlike longing for love and connection. He died on the battlefield in 1918.

To compliment and contextualise these songs, Caitríona and Boris also perform works written in the years just before the world-engulfing war, including cabaret songs by Braun’s French contemporary, Erik Saite (1866-1925). Satie’s work embodies the urbane and absurdist spirit of French modernism, his poetry and cabaret songs blending whimsy, irony, and a mischievous rejection of convention.

Boris also performs Alexander Scriabin’s (1872-1915) remarkable last composition, his Five Preludes, Op. 74, and honouring one of music’s greatest mystics, Caitríona performs O Viridissima Virga by Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179).

Tying the whole programme together is Sonnekus², performed a cappella by Caitríona. Composed in 1985 by John Cage (1912-2092) it is a short song cycle for solo voice full of Cageian wit and mysticism. Cage’s instructions for Sonnekus²are that it be performed alongside Satie’s cabaret songs.

As a whole, the works offer a poignant juxtaposition of youthful idealism and knowing satire, of impassioned contemplation and light-hearted irreverence—a dynamic tension that will be explored in this unique concert programme. 

Caitríona O’Leary – voice
Boris Bergmann – piano