Love and Desire

Songs by Muriel Herbert, Roger Quilter, Arnold Schoenberg, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Richard Wagner, and others

“Such is love!...” wrote Eduard Mörike nearly exactly 200 years ago, shrugging his shoulders in resignation at the force of nature and the many forms through which love captivates us humans and never lets us go. A song duo well-known in Stuttgart and beloved far beyond the region’s borders is dedicated to this phenomenon—love—in all its contradictory, passionate, beautiful, and at times painful facets: soprano Sarah Wegener and pianist Götz Payer. In the concert hall of the HMDK Stuttgart—where Sarah Wegener studied and Götz Payer has served as a professor of art song since 2022—the two explore the full spectrum of human emotions—from the tentative first spark of love to the blazing fire of all-consuming desire.