Esther Valentin - Amors Spiel (2019)

Amor's arrow hits the heart: you fall in love, happy, immortal or hopeless. And you're in love when Cupido's second arrow, the lead arrow, hits. Unpredictable and moody, ironic and teasing, or even uplifting, stirring and tragic, Amor's game with man is his play. The mezzo-soprano Esther Valentin and the pianist Anastasia Grishutina dedicate their debut CD "Amors Spiel" to the varieties of love, its fulfilment and its failure, its inexplicable power, which the myth ascribes to the arbitrariness of a playful god. Well-known love songs by Franz Schubert are juxtaposed with Valentin / Grishutina songs by Mozart and Haydn, Hugo Wolfs, Hans Pfitzner and Arnold Schönberg as well as songs by William Bolcom and poetry settings by Moritz Eggert - an original selection of laughter, rapture and lamentation of love, with a light heart and humour, with drama, always interpreted with depth and yet refreshingly young. - Among other prizes Valentin / Grishutina received the 1st prize as well as the audience prize of the international Schubert competition Dortmund "LiedDuo" in 2018; Anastasia Grishutina was also awarded the special prize of the jury for song accompaniment by the Schubert competition.