Everyone falls in love in May by the cupid shooting arrows of melody

Tenor Kim Se-il, who recently released a new album “A Poet’s Love (Dichterliebe)” by Robert Schumann with pianist Markus Hadulla, a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, in May 2020, performs the songs of Schumann on May 12 at Seoul Arts Center’s IBK Chambers Hall. The performance has been postponed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hadulla who worked on the album with Kim will play the piano.

Two years ago, a journalist wrote a commentary of the album: “The most powerful impression conveyed by the album is the singer’s fixation on every word of the lyrics to the point of precise craftsmanship. Kim Se-il’s voice reminds of a legendary German tenor Peter Schreier, who was admired for his interpretations of “A Poet’s Love,” yet with less nasal resonance, which makes Kim’s voice is easier to listen to. This album is no less competitive than the best recordings of the song in history. The lyrics and music that Kim meticulously expressed aroused a sense of having been crossed in love, which made me turn round and round the living room on a weekend summer morning.”

“This song is the first song cycle that I came across when I was a schoolboy, and a loving work that I want to call as a ‘miracle like an accomplished first love,’” said Kim Se-il. “Inside the infinite imagination, Schumann, Heine, and myself exist together. I wish everyone who listens to the song see these beautiful landscapes, too.”

In the former part of the recital, Kim will sing “Liederkreis, Op. 24” composed by Schumann in 1840, the year the composer got married.


gustav@donga.com