Hyperion Records

It is documented that Schubert himself admired Kreutzer’s Neun Wanderlieder, Op 34. The songs were written in 1817 and published in the early 1820s. When they were dismissed as unimportant by Anselm Hüttenbrenner, Schubert replied: ‘I wish I had composed them.’ There is a directness and simplicity about this music, as if pared down to the bone, a true combination of romanticism and the minimalist discipline of the Berlin lieder school. It is this characteristic that links Kreutzer’s style with the later Schubert.

from notes by Graham Johnson © 2006