Wolf, H: Mörike-Lieder (complete)

For his debut on Fuga Libera, Dietrich Henschel sets a very high benchmark. Accompanied by his faithful pianist, Fritz Schwinghammer, he provides a stunning introduction to the universe of Hugo Wolf in the first in a series of recitals recorded in the Ehrbar Saal in Vienna. The live recording in such an inspiring surrounding gives us something completely intimate and natural. The CD comes complete with a text by the eminent Leopold Spitzer, biographer and publisher of Hugo Wolf, together with a translation of the poems. This almost complete edition of the lieder on poems from Eduard Mörike is flavoured with the emotion that only the finest dishes can provide. In the pantheon of the greatest and most eminent musicians at the end of the 19th century, it is time for Hugo Wolf to step forward and take the place he so richly deserves.

“quite simply, the world's greatest living lieder singer One of the greatest things I've ever heard in my life.” Tim Ashley, The Guardian, 15 August 2003

This distinguished set brings together all of Hugo Wolf's so-called 'Mörike' Lieder, the first of the great songbooks on which the composer's reputation rests.

Eduard Mörike was the author of poetic idylls and delightful fairytales, a bucolic, charmingly inadequate and ineffectual country clergyman at one with his surroundings, and a nature poet par excellence with an engaging sense of humour. His poems inspired Wolf to write some of his most popular, enduring, and endearing songs, though there are many in the collection which are not as well-known as they should be. Astoundingly, all 53 were written within a few months in 1888.

Soprano Joan Rodgers was appointed a CBE by Her Majesty the Queen in the 2001 New Year's Honours list, and Stephan Genz was, of course, the recipient of a Gramophone Award for his Hyperion CD of Beethoven songs with Roger Vignoles. Together with Roger, our two singers bring these delectable songs to life as never before.