Nataša Antoniazzo / Mia Elezović MIGNON Aus Goethes "Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre"

This recital CD by Croatian-born mezzo-soprano, Nataša Antoniazzo, is a traversal of various settings of the Mignon texts from Goethe’s ‘Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre’, the German master’s second great bildungsroman, in which the eponymous hero is drawn to the young maid, Mignon. The girl, having been abducted from her homeland in Italy gives the ever-present sense of nostalgia, loss and innocence in suffering and ultimately tragedy, that the romantic, particularly Germanic, composer finds himself drawn to. With her appendages of simplicity and the sunshine of the south, the girl Mignon suffuses the music she inspired. The most famous verses are the words of Mignonherself, including the most well-known: ’Kennst du das Land?’ Apart from the ever popular Schubert settings, this disc includes settings by Beethoven, Schumann, Wolf,Tchaikovsky, Liszt and the youthful Alban Berg.

Nataša Antoniazzo is a masters graduate of the Music Academy in Zagreb, Croatia. She has also taken part in international masterclasses with Sena Jurinac (Vienna), Grace Bumbry (at the international summer school of the Mozarteum, Salzburg), and Jonathan Morris (Switzerland) among others. She continues to perform as a soloist with the Croatian National Opera and around Europe, also performing widely as a lieder recitalist and has been broadcast by Croatian Radio and Television. in addition to performing, Nataša teaches music and dramatic studies at the Libertas International University in Zagreb and gives guest lectures at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.

 Japanese-Croatian pianist, Mia Elezović, studied at the Music Academy in Zagreb, Croatia, and continued her studies at the University for Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna and the Manhattan School of Music in New York. Mia is the laureate of many competitions and has been a grant recipient of the Soros Foundation. As well as giving solo recitals, she is in demand internationally as a chamber musician. In addition, Mia teaches courses in New York, the Royal Conservatoire in Liége, Belgium, and in the music academies of Split and Osijek, Croatia.