An interview with Christian Gerhaher

Why Frage?

Frage (Question) is actually a very good approach to Schumann. As soon as you think you have an answer to his works and what they may mean, you are possibly on the wrong track. You have to keep yourself openminded with Schumann and so I agreed that this was a good title for the album. It’s also the title of a song in the Kerner Lieder.

What can you tell us about the larger Schumann project?

We have already recorded a lot of songs, and in the end we will record them all; so the album is an opening to this idea. Gerold and I have a special love for Schumann’s songs. Everybody knows Schubert invented them – and he’s really like the Godfather. It’s just fantastic what he did. But in our eyes the German art song was possibly taken to its highest range of possibilities in Schumann’s hands. Schubert was taking texts and making music out of them, but Schumann added something different – he added the possibility of expressing something other than the music and the underlying text.

How does an enduring partnership like yours benefit the music?

This is an easy question. Gerold and I have worked together now for 30 years and we’re like brothers. When we work on new repertoire, we practically never have to concentrate on how to make music together; just on the music itself. If we’re on stage and possibly not in the same rhythm, we don’t have to concentrate in order to synchronise; it just happens by itself like a big piece of rubber connecting us and drawing us back together.