Als alle Vögel sangen mein Sehnen und Verlangen

Swedish composer Magnus Granberg formed Skogen in Sweden in 2005 to work at the intersection between contemporary chamber music and improvisation. The ensemble has collaborated with international artists such as Angharad Davies, Ko Ishikawa, Toshimaru Nakamura, Rhodri Davies and Simon Allen. This evening the two groups will merge and interact, in a twilight zone where improvisation and composition become one process.

Granberg’s commissioned work for IMO, Als alle Vögel Sangen mein Sehnen und Verlangen (When All the Birds Sang My Yearning and Longing), is a relaxed, drifting piece. The work was inspired by two different songs of springtime from the Romantic era: Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe, with lyrics from Heinrich Heine’s Im wunderschönen Monat Mai, and Franz Schubert’s Wilkommen lieber schöner Mai.