Konzert: Wednesday, 03.03.2027, 19:30, Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg

Aeneas Humm, baritone & Daniel Heide, piano

Program

“Hero's Dreams”
What do heroes dream of? In their songs, Schubert, Grieg, Clara Schumann, Ullmann and Wagner speak of longing, greatness, and the quiet doubt behind the heroic gesture. Baritone Aeneas Humm and pianist Daniel Heide rank among the most sought-after Lied duos of their generation – their performances together are events that captivate audiences completely. This evening promises art song at the highest level: subtle, intense, and full of human truth.

Franz Schubert  (1797–1828)

  • Des Wanderers Nachtlied  op. 80 Nr. 1
  • Der Wanderer  op. 4 Nr. 1
  • Sylvia  op. 106 Nr. 4

— Klavier solo

Edvard Grieg (1843–1907)

  • Gruss  op. 48 Nr. 1
  • Zur Rosenzeit  op. 48 Nr. 5
  • Ein Traum  op. 48 Nr. 6

Clara Schumann (1819–1896)

  • Ich stand in dunklen Träumen  op. 13 Nr. 1
  • Der Mond kommt still gegangen  op. 13 Nr. 4
  • Die Loreley  WoO

Viktor Ullmann (1898–1944)

Liederbuch des Hafis

  • Vorausbestimmung
  • Betrunken
  • Unwiderstehliche Schönheit
  • Lob des Weines

— Klavier solo

Richard Wagner (1813–1883)

Wesendonck-Lieder  WWV 91

  • Der Engel
  • Stehe still
  • Im Treibhaus
  • Schmerzen
  • Träume

Änderungen vorbehalten.

To dream is not to escape reality – it is to endure it.

Franz Schubert wrote his darkest songs as an outcast, estranged from the society around him. Edvard Grieg asserted a distinctly Norwegian musical language at a time of political subjugation. Clara Schumann composed against the resistance of an era that barely granted women such a voice. Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder are the record of an impossible love – the seed from which Tristan und Isolde would grow. They all dared to dream where others fell silent.

Among them, Viktor Ullmann stands apart – not only as an artist, but as a witness. In 1942, the former student of Arnold Schoenberg was deported to Theresienstadt. There, he continued to compose: operas, sonatas, songs. His Liederbuch des Hafis, set to verses by the Persian poet, is an act of resistance through beauty – an invocation of rapture, love, and spiritual freedom in the face of annihilation. Ullmann was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944. His music has survived. In this programme, it sounds as what it is: a heroic testament to the human spirit.

Aeneas Humm, baritone

Aeneas Humm, born in 1995 in Richterswil, Switzerland, is one of the most compelling baritone talents of his generation. Growing up on the shores of Lake Zurich, he began his musical journey at the age of six as a member of the Zurich Boys' Choir. After studying at the University of the Arts Bremen, he completed his training at the Juilliard School in New York (2017–2019), working with Edith Wiens and making his Carnegie Hall debut.

Humm pursues three disciplines at the highest level: opera, song, and oratorio. His operatic engagements have taken him to the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, the Hamburg State Opera, Theater an der Wien, Opera Roma, and Teatro La Fenice Venice. Key roles include Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Harlekin (Ariadne auf Naxos), Dr. Falke (Die Fledermaus), and Agrippa in John Adams' Antony and Cleopatra. For the 2026 season he will make his role debut as Heerrufer in Lohengrin at Teatro La Fenice and perform Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the Bamberger Symphoniker.

As a Lieder singer Humm appears regularly at major festivals - Musikfest Bremen, the Lucerne Festival, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and the Tonhalle Zurich.

Picture: Maurice Haas

He is recognised as one of the most versatile voices of his field. His fourth solo album Libertas (Rondeau Production, 2025), recorded with pianist Doriana Tchakarova, was acclaimed by the press and radio alike. In 2022 he received the OPUS Klassik Award as Young Artist of the Year; his album Embrace was named 'CD of the Year 2021' by BR Klassik. Aeneas Humm is based in Berlin.

Daniel Heide, piano

Few pianists understand the art of the Liederabend as instinctively as Daniel Heide. Born in Weimar, he is one of the most sought-after song accompanists of his generation – a reputation forged through decades of stage partnership with André Schuen, Christoph Prégardien, Konstantin Krimmel, Katharina Konradi and many others. From Wigmore Hall and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam to the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, he is at home on the world's most distinguished Lied stages and at Europe's leading festivals.

Together with André Schuen he completed a celebrated trilogy of Schubert's great song cycles for Deutsche Grammophon in 2024. Their Schwanengesang received the OPUS KLASSIK Award in 2023, and their Winterreise served as the soundtrack to Alex Helfrecht's acclaimed animated film A Winter's Journey. Three solo albums of Beethoven sonatas on CAvi-Music bear witness to a quiet, deeply felt engagement with the solo repertoire that Heide has pursued since 2020.

Picture: Guido Werner

As founder of the format "Der lyrische Salon – Liederabende auf Schloss Ettersburg", he has since 2011 built and sustained one of the world's very few concert series devoted exclusively to art song.