The Documentary Podcast Folgen

Michael Volle is a baritone singer who has made his name with magisterial operatic performances, particularly Wagner. Helmut Deutsch has been playing the piano alongside the great and the good of the classical world for five decades, including the soprano Ileana Cotrubas and the tenor Jonas Kaufmann. Performing the 24-song cycle that Franz Schubert wrote at the end of his short life, Die Winterreise, or the Winter’s Journey, is considered the pinnacle of the recital repertoire, even for such accomplished musicians. The trust between singer and pianist must be absolute, because the two performers are, in Volle’s words, “naked and pure on stage”. Deutsch and Volle have a 20-year friendship and working partnership to build on, a musical connection that brings them together to perform this “summit” of singing over and over again. Yet their next performance will be something out of the ordinary. They are undertaking a staged performance at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, in Barcelona. The musicians will be joined by actresses on the stage, photographs accompanying the music, and newly developed poems interspersed between songs. How will the staging affect the relationship between singer and pianist, and how will it impact the music? Writer and journalist Lluís Amiguet joins rehearsals in Barcelona to find out. Image: Helmut Deutsch (Credit: Kartal Karagedik) and Michael Volle (Credit: David Ruano)

A bonus episode from The Global Story podcast. Rare access inside Sudan's forgotten war. The Global Story brings you one big story every weekday, making sense of the news with our experts around the world. Insights you can trust, from the BBC, with Katya Adler. For more, go to bbcworldservice.com/globalstory or search for The Global Story wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Bjarke Ingels is the Danish architect who is responsible for creating the flood defence project for Manhattan. In 2012 Hurricane Sandy saw flood water rise up to 2.4 metres. Lives were lost, the city’s transportation system was brought to a stand-still and the New York Stock exchange was closed for two days. As a child, Bjarke wanted to draw comic books and walk on roofs and the buildings that he’s designed include a power station with a ski slope. How can he build his sense of fun and creativity into vital protection against climate change? Razia Iqbal meets Bjarke for The Cultural Frontline on the BBC World Service.