Mozart & Strauss: Lieder

Featuring

Sabine Devieilhe
Mathieu Pordoy
Vilde Frang
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Richard Strauss

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Compositional Technique

Mozart's song 'An Chloe' expresses his earthy, erotic nature, with a six-bar introduction suggesting ardour and a fermata illustrating a moment of climax.

Composition History

Richard Strauss expressed qualms about his 'Mädchenblumen' songs, describing them as "very complicated and such curious experiments" to his publisher, suggesting they be foisted on another.

Composition History

Mozart composed 'Das Traumbild' in Prague nine days after completing 'Don Giovanni', but ceded its authorship to Gottfried von Jacquin, who published it under his own name.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Mozart believed in the importance of creating German-language works, stating in a 1785 letter that Germans should "seriously set about thinking in German, playing in German, speaking in German and, even singing in German!!!"

Composer Biography

John Henry Mackay, the poet for Strauss's 'Morgen!', was a left-wing thinker with anarchist leanings whose work often contained homosexual subtext, and he published stories of gay love under the pseudonym Sagitta.

Compositional Technique

Mozart's songs, though sometimes considered minor works, are serious compositions that reveal the complexity of his character and form a link to the lyrical style of Richard Strauss's lieder.

Composition History

Mozart's 'Das Kinderspiel' and two other songs were commissioned by printer Ignaz Alberti for a four-part publication about the seasons, titled 'Liedersammlung für Kinder und Kinderfreunde am Clavier'.