Othmar Schoeck, a Swiss composer, believed that music brings the bud of a poem to full fruition, allowing it to evaporate more slowly than words alone and giving expression to the unutterable mystery behind the words.
Album & Artwork
The love for the literary works of Hermann Hesse forms the main theme of the selected Lieder on this album.
Performer Biography
Sophia Brommer, the soprano on this recording, was awarded the Bavarian State Award for the Advancement of Arts in 2008 for her penetrating and psychologically multifaceted role portrayals.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Johann Wolfgang Goethe, a renowned German writer, preferred settings of his poems that were faithful to the originals, with strophic patterns and no word repetitions.
Critical Reception
Hermann Hesse, a German poet and novelist, described Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs as 'virtuoso, refined, full of beautiful craftsmanship but without a centre, only an end in itself'.
Recording & Production
This recording is based on the OehmsClassics Special Prize awarded to Sophia Brommer at the 61st International Music Competition of the ARD Munich in 2012.
Composer Biography
Othmar Schoeck composed at least 400 lieder with piano accompaniment and about 100 settings with string quartet, obbligato instruments, or orchestra.
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