Friedrich Rückert, poet and scholar born in Schweinfurt, Bavaria, in 1788, spoke or studied more than 40 languages. Considered possibly Europe’s greatest linguistic genius of the 19th century, he translated hundreds of texts from Arabic and Persian to German. Franz Schubert was the first to set one of his poems to music in 1823—his Sei mir gegrüsst has been followed by countless other compositions right up to the present day. In the season’s final Lied und Lyrik program, pianist and curator Julius Drake joins forces with tenor Ian Bostridge to present a selection of Rückert songs from Schubert to Henze, with an actor reading from his poetry.