Kienzl's 238 songs with piano demonstrate a remarkable range, stretching from simple folk-like ditties to art-songs with near-atonal harmonic language.
Composer Biography
Kienzl studied with one of Chopin's pupils, Henri-Louis Stanislas Mortier de Fontaine, and also had a short period of study with Franz Liszt in Weimar.
Composer Biography
Wilhelm Kienzl, the composer, was highly regarded by his contemporaries not only as a composer but also as a pianist, conductor, musicologist, and writer on music.
Composer Biography
Wilhelm Kienzl's father, a lawyer, was four times elected mayor of Graz and was a member of the Styrian parliament, providing a prosperous and artistically inclined household for the composer.
Recording & Production
This recording was supported by the 'Neustart Kultur' programme of the Deutscher Musikrat.
Composer Biography
Kienzl dedicated his published dissertation on 'Musical Declamation' to 'The Master Richard Wagner in deepest veneration' and was welcomed into the Bayreuth fold as a stage-manager, pianist, and conductor.
Compositional Technique
While harmonically tonal, some of Kienzl's songs, particularly in Op. 82, No. 4, show an intense chromaticism and lack of definite key, reflecting late 19th and early 20th-century musical trends.
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