01 BLAS GALINDO (1910 – 1993)
Mezzo-Soprano ITZELI DEL ROSARIO

"My parents' lullabies were my first music. With that song, I want to convey precisely the same gesture of love and deep tenderness."

02 TRAD. TIROL / ARR. GÖTZ PAYER
Bass-Baritone MICHAEL NAGL

GIACOMO PUCCINI (1858 – 1924)
Soprano CLAUDIA MUSCHIO

"This lullaby embodies all the warmth and nostalgia of the Italian operatic tradition. And it reminds me in particular of the lyrical themes from Puccini's La rondine. For me, the music has something gentle and protective about it, almost as if it were embracing you. The lyrics are simple but full of tenderness – they tell of a longing for peace and security."

AARON COPLAND (1900 – 1990)
Baritone ELLIOT CARLTON HINES

TRAD. POLEN / ARR. GÖTZ PAYER
Baritone PAWEŁ KONIK

"This is one of the most famous Polish lullabies. The lyrics is about three different characters, the king, the page and the princess, and about their idyllic and carefree life. As in many European lullabies, it also includes a dark element, namely death. In the story the king, the page and the princess are eaten by a dog, a cat and a mouse. The last verse, however, reveals that the heroes were only made of sweets.
I think death appears in lullabies because they often reflect popular beliefs and fears. They also serve the symbolic function of processing trauma, such as the death of a child. Lullabies were intended to help children fall asleep by combining a pleasant rhythm with a sense of security. They also enable parents to process pain and loss by composing songs.

What I personally find very touching about that song is the combination of poignant, soothing melody and a rhythm that helps children to fall asleep – and not only children... I have often rocked my own children to sleep with it – there is hardly anything more beautiful in life than quietly singing to your own children whilst watching them fall asleep in your arms."

TRAD. SALZBURGER LAND
Soprano ESTHER DIERKES
Baritone BJÖRN BÜRGER
Violin ELENA GRAF

"Our lullabies have not only accompanied us already throughout our childhood - we also love singing them soothingly to our four children to help them fall asleep. For us, they represent moments of dreaming, letting go and feeling secure. Memories of childhood."

STEPHEN COLLINS FOSTER (1826 – 1864)
Tenor JOSEPH TANCREDI

TRAD. ITALIEN / ARR. DIANA HALLER
Mezzo-Soprano KS. DIANA HALLER

JIANCHUN ZHENG (1926 – 1999)
Soprano ALMA RUOQI SUN

"My song stems from the north-eastern region of China, where I am from.
Unfortunately, I cannot consciously remember how it felt when my mother sang this song to me as a baby. However, my mother, who was a singer herself, told me that I always shed a few tears when I heard it. The delicate, atmospheric melody had already then made me feel sentimental on a subconscious level.
Now, when I sing the song myself, a very intimate feeling comes over me. I am not a mother myself yet, but the tenderness is still so deeply stored in my muscle memory that it comes out almost automatically. The feeling of being safe in my mother's warm arms, of being loved, is instinctively awakened.
That is of course also because I sing it in Chinese, my native language. The lyrics itself are quite mundane, descriptions of nature on a quiet, beautiful night with gentle words of reassurance. But I believe our listeners will very much feel the innate tenderness and love, even without understanding the words. That's a lullyby's beauty. Languages and cultures may differ, but the love that is carried in the song is universal, conveyed through music. And the foreign language is no barrier at all."

ALBERTO GINASTERA (1916 – 1983)
Tenor KAI KLUGE

TRAD. RUSSLAND / ARR. GÖTZ PAYER
Soprano JOSEFIN FEILER

ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK (1841 – 1904)
Tenor KS. TORSTEN HOFMANN

"I purchased this song's sheet music along with many others during my studies in Berlin in 1987 at the Frankfurt Dom. Since then, I have been contemplating about the possible occasion to sing it one day. I am glad that the opportunity has now arisen. I have always had a connection to that rich cultural circle, had warm and friendly ties to Prague. Years later I sing the part of Mime in Wagner's Rheingold and Siegfried during the Prague Spring Festival with the DOR at the Národní Divadlo and with the Prague Orchestra under John Fiore, National Theatre. I sang Mime with sheet music from a Prague antique bookshop, magnificent copies that I had bought years earlier in ‘P-Weinberg’. The song is a Slovak lullaby:
Dobrú noc, má milá, dobrú noc, nech ti je Pán Boh sám na pomoc. Dobrú noc, dobre spi, nech sa ti snívajú milé sny! Snívaj sa ti sníčok, ach snivaj, keď vstaneš, sníčoku veru daj, že ťa ja milujem, srdiečko svoje ti darujem.
(Good night, my darling, good night, may the Lord God himself help you. Good night, sleep well, may you have pleasant dreams! Dream of yourself, dream, oh dream, when you wake up, dream, then truly give me that I love you, I will give you my heart.)"

TRAD. SCHOTTLAND / ARR. GÖTZ PAYER
Soprano KS. CATRIONA SMITH

"Baloo is the Scottish word for lullaby, and the song originates from the northernmost part of Scotland, the Shetland Islands. It is about a mother singing to her child to calm its fears: The angels will chase away allt he evil fairies, and the baby can sleep peacefully. I sang it to my babies, just as my mother sang it to me, and as generations before me have done."

BJÖRN ISFÄLT (1942 – 1997) / ARR. GÖTZ PAYER
Mezzo-Soprano IDA RÄNZLÖV

"Since the birth of my first child last December, I must have sung Vargsången (The Wolf Song) over a hundred times. So to settle on that song as my favourite Swedish lullaby wasn't a difficult decision to make at all . It stems from the book and the film Ronja Rövardotter by Astrid Lindgren, my favourite author. The character Lovis sings the song to calm her daughter Ronja, who is afraid of wolves. The lyrics describe a hungry wolf howling at night in the forest and how the mother begged him not to come any closer, because she would never ever give him her child. In short, a mother says to her daughter: Let me protect you from the big bad wolf."

JOHANN ABRAHAM PETER SCHULZ (1747 – 1800)
Bass DAVID STEFFENS

MAEWA KAIHAU (1879 – 1941) / ARR. GÖTZ PAYER
Soprano NATASHA TE RUPE WILSON

LUCIO SAN PEDRO (1913 – 2002)
Tenor CHARLES SY

"This lullaby is so well known in the Philippines that it is considered as familiar as the Philippine national anthem itself. The singer recalls a gentle melody that his mother used to sing to them and the peaceful sleep they enjoyed under the watchful gaze of the stars. Life became paradise when his mother sang the song to him. In the end, the singer reveals that the source of his longing is that he is currently going through a difficult phase and wishes to return to a simpler and more peaceful time when he was still a baby being rocked in the cradle."

TRAD. BAYERN / ARR. GÖTZ PAYER
Soprano ESTHER DIERKES
Baritone BJÖRN BÜRGER
Violin ELENA GRAF