Franz Schubert's Winterreise - Part 2

The second half of this cycle--set to Müller’s poems--opens on a cheerful note: the postman has arrived, momentarily reviving the wanderer's wishes and desires. But regret and sorrow are bound to be his only companions along this cold winter journey.

Pursued by the barking of dogs and circled incessantly by a solitary crow, he is driven onward, rejected. As his last flame of hope dwindles, the landscape turns barren, suspended in frost. A tattered, old organ-grinder appears to accompany him on what may prove to be his final journey.

Giulio Biddau

Giulio Biddau is a award-winning pianist who has performed around the world in venues including the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, Salle Cortot in Paris, Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Grand Theatre de Provence in Aix-en-Provence, Palau de la Musica en Valencia, CCK in Buenos Aires and the Oriental Art Center in Shanghai. He placed first in the Casagrande Competition in Terni, “Les Nuits Pianistiques – Lauréats SPEDIDAM” in Aix-en-Provence, “José Iturbi” in Valencia, and the Tbilisi International Piano Competition. In 2019, he received a “the best” award as international pianist from the Argentinian Critics Societies.

Biddau has played with many notable orchestras and collaborated with conductors including Lawrence Foster, François-Xavier Roth, Tan Dun, Damian Iorio, and Silvia Massarelli. His chamber music partners have included mezzosoprano Monica Bacelli and violinist Anna Tifu.

Biddau has recorded music by Domenico Scarlatti and Gabriel Fauré for the French Label Aparté and by Respighi for “Evidence”.

Allen Boxer

A graduate of the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, baritone Allen Boxer is a former member of the Junges Ensemble at the Semperoper Dresden, where his roles included Dandini in La Cenerentola, Masetto in Don Giovanni, Cesare Angelotti in Tosca, Baron Douphol in La Traviata, and Vicomte Cascada in Lehár’s Die lustige Witwe.

At Curtis, he sang Nick Shadow in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore and the Forester in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. He has also taken part in the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence’s Académie Européenne de Musique and is a former Britten-Pears Young Artist.

His current season opened with an appearance at the AFEKT contemporary music festival in Tallinn in a performance of Atara, by leading contemporary composer Chaya Czernowin. In the winter, he assumed teaching duties at the prestigious Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. In April, he debuts as bass soloist in both Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and Bach’s Matthäuspassion with the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra in Yerevan, before traveling to Italy to perform Stravinsky’s Les Noces in the original Russian with the Teatro Regio di Parma. Last season saw Allen’s debut with the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, playing three different roles in the world premiere of Giorgio Battistelli’s Julius Caesar, directed by Robert Carsen. He made his house debut in Montpellier as Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande, and then he traveled to Metz to perform a set of Schubert Lieder with the composer/pianist Brice Pauset. His summer was spent singing the 1st Soldier in Salome—directed by Andrea Breth—and covering Virgilio in the world premiere of Dusapin’s Il viaggio, Dante with the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.

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