Erlkönig, Op 154 No 4

First line:

Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind?

composer

Louis Spohr (1784-1859)

author of text

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

Recordings

Schubert: The Complete Songs

Graham Johnson (piano)

Buy by post £180.00 CDS44201/40 40CDs Boxed set + book (at a special price)

Songs by Schubert's contemporaries

Graham Johnson (piano)

Buy by post £34.98 CDJ33051/3 3CDs

Details

Gerald Finley (baritone), Marianne Thorsen (violin), Graham Johnson (piano)

Track 25 on CDJ33051/3 CD2 [3'03] 3CDs

Track 25 on CDS44201/40 CD39 [3'03] 40CDs Boxed set + book (at a special price)

DeutschEnglish

Erlkönig, Op 154 No 4

Spohr was first and foremost a violinist. His most popular songs in the repertoire today are his Deutsche Lieder, Op 103, with piano and clarinet accompaniment, but it is entirely logical that he should have written a group of lieder with violin obbligato. These are the Sechs Deutsche Lieder, Op 154, composed in 1856 and published the following year. Of the six songs this is the only Goethe setting. The writing for the violin is fiendishly difficult and poses a problem of balance that can only be solved by the finest violinist prepared to play in a truly ghostly fashion. Spohr must have been only too aware that there had been so many celebrated settings of this lyric that it was almost impossible to present a new viewpoint. His idea was clearly to use the violin to represent the beguilingly sweet and unearthly voice of the Erlkönig.

comparative Schubert listening:
Erlkönig D328. October (?) 1815

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Hyperion Records