Hyperion Records

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

from notes by Graham Johnson © 2006