Robert Franz

"... the more one listens to this music the more clear it seems that the intimate alchemy binding these words and music together is potentiated by nothing less than love - however one chooses to understand that word. Irrespective of further biographical considerations, and on musical grounds alone, this symbiotic relationship places the Franz-Osterwald collaboration as one of the most fascinating in the history of the German lied and, until now, one of the most underestimated." - Graham Johnson. Robert Franz composed fifty-one varied and contrasting settings of love poems written by his close friend, Karl Wilhelm Osterwald, collected here for the first time in a new edition. The songs hint at the "deep passion" of 1837-1846, noted by Liszt. The themes of shame, secrecy, and self-sacrifice, make these bold, lyrical songs unique in the genre of 19th century German lieder. This illustrated volume also contains a fascinating body of new research, translations, discography and appendix of associated works.