Eine schöne Müllerin

“In my arranging and rearranging of images I’m like a child [...] I’m like a lunatic adorning my hair with dried flowers that are still alive in my dreams.” Fernando Pessoa, Book of Disquiet, p. 193

A youngster, in search of a future,livehood and love: euphoric dreams and lethal disillusions. Nothing new so far. Two centuries ago, Wilhelm Müller poetically captured this universal quest in a consciously naive style with folk-like simplicity, striving for a deep unconscious ardor in the shy articulation of what is most elevated. The burning result keeps smouldering into the present in Schubert's immortal melodies from
For note whisperer Daan Janssens this song cycle is the starting point for an updated reading of a topic transcending space and time. In this case, Schubert's composition itself is the guide to the exploratory voyage, at times sparkling at the surface only to submerge again as a deeply hidden undercurrent.
Dromen en illusies worden in een ander perspectief geplaatst door de confrontatie met Fernando Pessoas Boek der Rusteloosheid.

In Eine schöne Müllerin, Daan Janssens constructs a series of tableaux for baritone and instrumental ensemble, in which the reverberations of the original linger on, reflected in the mirror of today.