When legendary vocal accompanist Graham Johnson returns to make his 53rd and 54th appearance at the Ruhr Piano Festival, devotees of art song know they can expect a thoughtfully selected programme sung by first-rate young vocalists. Austrian mezzo-soprano Sophie Rennert masters a wide range of repertoire across all periods, styles, and genres. With the “wonderfully warm, supple glow of her noble mezzo timbre” (Die Welt), this laureate of the Salzburg International Mozart Competition has not only thrilled audiences in Baroque operas by Handel and Vivaldi or in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, but also as Prince Orlofsky in Johann Strauss’ Fledermaus, as well as in contemporary repertoire. In the recording studio, she recently made her solo contribution to Graham Johnson’s ongoing Brahms lieder project. For the first of two artsong evenings in Essen-Werden, the two artists have selected lieder from all of Schubert’s creative periods, ranging from “Rastlose Liebe”, written when the Austrian composer was still eighteen, to “Die Sterne” from 1828, the year of his death.