Rainer Maria Rilke evening Concert reading
"Out of sheer listening and amazement" - on the 100th anniversary of Rainer Maria Rilke's death
In amazement at the poetic intensity of R. M. Rilke's poetry, you can discover unexpected dimensions by listening to the sounds. A musical reading with Rilke settings by Alban Berg, Alma Mahler, Petr Eben, Dora Pejačević and Manfred Weiss. The evening's artists are Britta Schwarz (alto), Axel Thielmann (reading) and Christine Hesse on the grand piano.
Saturday, May 2, 2026 at 7 pm
Admission: 15 euros
About the artists: Christine Hesse began her musical training at the Dresden Special School of Music as a piano major and later studied piano with Amadeus Webersinke and Karl-Heinz Naumann and accompaniment with Gertraud Geißler at the Dresden University of Music. She gained experience as a pianist in masterclasses with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Theo Adam, Peter Schreier and Brigitte Faßbaender, among others, worked as a competition accompanist and was awarded the accompanist prize at the International Antonin Dvořak Competition in Karlovy Vary. In addition to teaching at the Dresden University of Music, she also performs as a pianist in recitals.
Axel Thielmann studied singing at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Weimar from 1985 to 1991. He has worked as a freelance artist, singer and actor since 1991. He has worked as a narrator for MDR Kultur since 1993 and for MDR television and various ARD formats since 1996. In addition to numerous feature and radio play productions, Axel Thielmann regularly narrates audio books. Numerous performances, including with the MDR orchestras, the Gewandhaus Choir, the Leipzig Vocal Consort, the Dresden Kreuzchor and the Hallenser Madrigalisten, have taken him to many concert halls and festivals across the country.
The singer Britta Schwarz began her vocal studies at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin, later moving to Dresden to study with Prof. Christian Elßner and Prof. Hartmut Zabel. She then had a four-year engagement at the studio of the Dresden State Opera (Semper Opera). In numerous concerts with renowned orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and the Cappella Andrea Barca, mezzo-soprano Britta Schwarz brings her extensive repertoire to bear. Britta Schwarz dedicates herself to chamber music with great preference and special attention. Britta Schwarz has been teaching at the Carl Maria von Weber Academy of Music in Dresden for several years, where she leads the oratorio interpretation course within the concert class, and is also a guest professor at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin. Invitations to give masterclasses have taken her to Japan, Iceland and Norway, among other places.
