We all have in mind what the nineteenth century lunatic asylums were like thanks to cinema (and literature), it won't be hard for us to understand Hugo Wolf's horror and suffering when he was locked up. He arrived at Dr. Svetlin's private mental sanatorium on 19 September 1897. He was deceived; his friends made him believe they were going to the Emperor's residence to sign [...]

I told my friend JD that I had written a blog article about Sure on this shining night, but when I searched for the link, I realized it was not there. I thought I had written that post, but I guess something came up and I didn't. No doubt, I had to correct my mistake and talk to you about this song, one of Samuel Barber's most performed.

Occasionally I hear phrases from a Lied in my head, and they bother me until I identify it, I told you about this. It also happens to me that I hear some music that reminds me of a Lied, and, again, I must identify it, as I also told you. Another variation on this theme is when I hear a Lied that reminds me of another song. That's what happened to me a few days ago, when I was choosing a version of Seligkeit to share with you.

We spoke a while ago about how trends also affect the world of Lied, and works that had been very much present in recitals and recordings for decades almost disappeared from the repertoire. On that occasion, I shared a Lied that had been one of Schubert's most popular in the 19th century, and now you barely hear it, Lob der Tränen. I would say the Lied of this week [...]

Einst [Once long ago] is a minimal song. It only has fourteen bars, the vocal line doesn't go beyond a fifth (the distance between C and G on the C major scale that we all know) and, as for dynamics, neither voice nor accompaniment moves from piano. The poem is also minimal, only a four-verse stanza that tells us about an absence. Its shortness leaves us with no idea if the [...]