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CD Recording Project: Voices of Europe
Young international singers perform
Engel Lund’s extraordinary Book
of Folk Song in fourteen European languages
by Norbert Meyn
posted 9 October 2007
In the 1930s and ’40s the Icelandic singer Engel Lund and her Austrian accompanist, the composer Ferdinand Rauter, travelled the world with a unique recital programme of folksongs from many European countries. At a time of growing separation, violence and destruction these artists brought a message of the universal nature of the human heart to enthusiastic audiences all over Europe and the United States .
Engel Lund sang in at least fourteen different languages, included Jewish as well as German songs in each programme, and gave lively, much praised introductions to the songs and the stories in them.
‘Her recital gave a glimpse into the human heart of many peoples;
that heart is very much alike the world over, but Mme Lund has studied
it on a humble level where the native differences of its expression mean
everything and are dearest.’
(Chicago Daily News,
1937)
In 2006, seventy years after Oxford University Press published Engel Lund’s Book of Folk Song, young singers from all these different countries can be found studying together in London , the city which Engel Lund and Ferninand Rauter made their home.
With this CD, a new generation of singers will pay tribute to these
extraordinary artists. It will be the first-ever recording of their unique
collection of folksongs and encourage young talent from Iceland, Sweden,
Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, the United States, Israel, the
Czech Republic, Austria and Germany.
This project is a joint initiative by Norbert Meyn, a professor at the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Anglo Austrian Music Society and the Austrian Cultural Forum, 2006
Estimated Costs
Engel Lund’s book of Folk Songs, recorded at the ROYAL COLLEGE OF
MUSIC studio
10 Singers @ £150 -- £1500
2 Pianists @ £350
-- 700
Reader (introductions) -- £200
CD booklet text, translation and design
-- £600
Recording Studio and Editing -- £2,700
CD Printing -- £1,500
Organisation and Coaching -- £800
Total -- £8,000
For further information please don’t hesitate to contact me at:
Lieder Theatre Limited
68 Cornish House
Otto Street
London
SE17 3PE
UK
Tel +44 (0)20 7735 0125
Email: mail [at] norbert-meyn.com
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