Regarded as a first-rate but tragically neglected composer of Lieder, Erich J. Wolff has, until recently, only been familiar to a small number of music enthusiasts. The beautiful 1909 song cycle Neun Gedichte, set to texts by the composer’s close friend Cäsar Flaischlen, is notable for its juxtaposition of rapture, joy and fear. Amongst the numerous profound, dignified and sublime settings on this album the Hafis Lieder represent a multi-faceted and oriental-flavoured sequence, ranging from calm sadness and defiant heroism to a rapturous conclusion.

Acclaimed baritone Hans Christoph Begemann has a reputation particularly as a singer of Lieder. He has recorded three volumes in our complete Lieder of Peter Cornelius, of which Vol.4 in the edition (8572859) was regarded in MusicWeb International as ‘an unexpected major pleasure… fascinating and delightful music, well performed and well presented’.

German pianist Klaus Simon has a particular focus on song, and at the heart of his work as a Lieder accompanist are the German late-Romantic and early-modern composers. For Naxos he has recorded the complete songs by Pfitzner and Korngold. He has also recorded Schulhoff’s complete Lieder with singers Sunhae Im, Tanja Ariane Baumgartner and Hans Christoph Begemann, winning the German Record Critics’ Award in 2021, and the complete songs of Alfano, which was released in November 2023, for bastille musique.