One of the most timeless works in the art song repertoire will be shared this week in one of the most timeless communities in rural Manitoba. Franz Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin – The Beautiful Miller’s Daughter – has long held the distinction of being one of the most performed and most beloved collections of German lieder ever composed. For tenor Colin Ainsworth and collaborative pianist Laura Loewen, who will be performing the work at the Krahn Barn in the Mennonite heritage village of Neubergthal, it is a work that has been revisited, re-studied and re-approached in countless iterations over the course of their careers as two of the country’s most lauded art song interpreters. .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } “You start to pick up little things that are just so fascinating and interesting,” says Ainsworth. “The more you do it, the more you realize that you’ve just scratched the surface of the piece.” “It’s an amazing piece to play,” adds Loewen, "because you look at it and it looks super simple, but one of Schubert’s real geniuses was taking incredibly simple things and creating real places.” “Every time we perform it, I feel like, ‘Okay, now I understand.’ And then the next time I perform it, I’m like, ‘Oh no, I never understood this. It’s so much better now,’ and I hope that just continues through the rest of my life.” .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } Schubert’s song cycle uses the poetry of Wilhelm Müller in twenty individual lieder performed back-to-back to tell the story of a young man who falls in love with the miller’s daughter, a love that repeatedly is rejected. He takes solace in talking with the brook that runs near the mill, although eventually, even nature’s comfort cannot save him. Both Loewen and Ainsworth point to subtleties in Schubert’s score that help underscore this relationship between boy and girl and boy and brook. “It’s such a challenge because there’s such short little snippets,” says Loewen. “So, like, in a two-minute song, you’re telling a huge story. Every note has to matter because you don’t have twenty minutes to tell the story.” .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } “This piece is really fascinating in the way that it has these melodies that kind of stick with you all the time,” says Ainsworth when asked about what he hopes people hearing Die schöne Müllerin for the first time will take away from the experience. “Schubert has this great way of taking the lyrics and matching those with some fantastic things that have happened in Laura’s part in the piano, like fireworks or a mill that you can hear. There [are] so many things that you can just sort of take away and without even knowing what the words are saying, you can kind of garner what’s happening in the story.” Ainsworth and Loewen’s performance of Die schöne Müllerin takes place at the historic Krahn Barn in Neubergthal at 7 p.m. on August 28. Tickets can be purchased at the door or can be acquired by contacting the concert organizers.