Wolf: The Complete Songs, Vol. 9 – Michelangelo Lieder & Early Songs
1/6/2017, 22 Tracks, 1:10:38
Featuring
William Berger
Thomas Hobbs
Sholto Kynoch
Lydia Teuscher
Robert Holl
Hugo Wolf
Did you know?
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Composer's Artistic Vision
Wolf's early songs, such as 'Mausfallen-Sprüchlein', already showed characteristics of his later style, as he himself noted: 'You can already detect the wolf-cub!'
Composition History
The publication of Wolf's 'Sechs Lieder für eine Frauenstimme' was financed by his friend Friedrich Eckstein during a period of financial and emotional difficulty for the composer.
Composer Biography
Wolf expressed fear for his own sanity when contemplating his song 'Alles endet, was entstehet', writing: 'I am truly scared of this work, for as I contemplate it I fear for my reason.'
Composer's Artistic Vision
Wolf considered 'Alles endet, was entstehet' from the Michelangelo settings to be the finest of his original four, describing its 'astonishing truly antique simplicity'.
Composer Biography
Hugo Wolf contracted syphilis in 1878, which later led to his insanity and early death, coinciding with his first major burst of songwriting.
Composition History
The Michelangelo settings were the last songs Wolf composed before he was committed to an asylum, where he later died.
Composer Biography
Hugo Wolf, the composer, was dismissed from the Vienna conservatoire after a fellow student forged his name on a threatening letter to the director.
