Hugo Wolf – The Complete Mörike Lieder, part 2

7pm (free): Pre-concert talk

John Warren: "The poems of Eduard Mörike; inspired creations of an unhappy pastor"

Hugo Wolf wrote almost nothing other than songs, but the legacy he left is a rich one. His writing found its peak with his settings of the poet Eduard Mörike, often compared to Britten and Auden or Schubert and Goethe for the perfect marriage of composer and poet.

Mörike was a pastor and painter as well as a poet and a great lover of music. His poems range from short, bright reflections on nature and simple love poetry to much darker introverted worlds. Wolf evidently felt a great affinity with the poet and his works: of his 53 settings (notwithstanding a handful of earlier efforts), every one is a gem and a remarkable number are considered masterpieces of the song repertoire.

Over the next two nights, 150 years on from the composer's birth, we hear all 53 of these extraordinary settings, performed by four singers who are firm favourites with Oxford Lieder audiences.

Programme:

Karwoche
Zum neuen Jahr
Gebet
An den Schlaf
Neue Liebe
Wo find' ich Trost
An die Geliebte
Peregrina I
Peregrina II
Frage und Antwort
Lebe wohl
Heimweh
Lied vom Winde

INTERVAL

Denk' es, o Seele!
Der Jäger
Rat einer Alten
Erstes Liebeslied eines Mädchens
Lied eines Verliebten
Der Feuerreiter
Nixe Binsefuß
Gesang Weyla's
Die Geister am Mummelsee
Storchenbotschaft
Zur Warnung
Auftrag
Bei einer Trauung
Selbstgeständnis
Abschied