Wolf: Italienisches Liederbuch

Featuring

Carolyn Sampson
Allan Clayton
Joseph Middleton
Hugo Wolf

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Compositional Technique

Wolf's settings of the Italienisches Liederbuch often deepen the emotional impact of Paul Heyse's translations, using musical elements like shifts in tonality or downward leaps to add poignancy.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Hugo Wolf chose to set rispetti—short love poems from Paul Heyse's translation of Italian folk songs—for his Italienisches Liederbuch, focusing on a wide variety of emotions in miniature form.

Composition History

Hugo Wolf composed his Italienisches Liederbuch in two intense periods: the first 15 songs in late 1890 and late 1891, and the remaining 24 songs in less than five weeks in 1896.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Despite the perfection of his final songbook, Hugo Wolf became disillusioned with the small-scale format of lieder, aspiring instead to master symphonic and operatic forms.

Composer Biography

Hugo Wolf suffered from secondary syphilis, which caused a period of creative paralysis from 1892 to 1894, and later tertiary syphilis, which led to mental decline and his eventual removal to an asylum.

Recording & Production

This recording of the Italienisches Liederbuch was made at Potton Hall in Suffolk, England, with soprano songs recorded in September 2020 and tenor songs in July 2021.

Interpretation

Because Hugo Wolf never heard a complete performance of his Italienisches Liederbuch, there is no single established performing tradition; performers often choose their own order or group songs by literary origin.