Graf Eberstein (1826) is an Uhland ballad that draws on the historical feud between the Saxon Emperor Otto I (936–973) and the counts of Eberstein. Loewe sets the tale, with its faintly risqué payoff, as a whirling Ländler that evokes Haydn’s
Seasons or Mahler’s more innocent
Wunderhorn songs.
from notes by Richard Wigmore © 2011
