Schubert: Antigone und Oedip D542 (Mayrhofer)

Schubert's reputation as a composer of solo lieder has tended to overshadow the works for two of more voices that he composed from the age of 14 to his last years. Some of these works includes four voices and choir, and they fall in to the category of domestic music making. The earliest date from his years as a pupil of Antonio Salieri, and may well have been intended as study works, others, such as the scena 'Antigone und Oedipe' D542 of 1817 was probably composed for friends, and is quite demanding of the performers.

The singers on these CDs represent some of the very best Schubert interpreters of the period -- and the recordings date from 1973. The accompanist is the incomparable Gerald Moore.

The Deutsche Schubert-Lied-Edition presents all Schubert’s Lieder, over 700 songs, grouped according to the poets who inspired him. Thanks to Bärenreiter’s Neue Schubert-Ausgabe (New Schubert Edition), Tübingen, which uses primary sources, the performers have been able to benefit from the most recent research of the editorial team.

While Schubert’s numerous works for male-voice ensembles were circulated widely, those for female voices remained less well known, despite including several ambitious works of genius.

Ulrich Eisenlohr, praised as the “splendid accompanist” on many of Naxos’s Schubert Lieder discs, and on Mozart’s Complete Songs (8557900-01) joins some outstanding singers on this second volume of Schubert’s delectable part-songs.