Clemens Morgenthaler; Bernhard Renzikowski - Schoeck: Fruhe Lieder

The songs recorded on this CD span the period from Swiss composer Othmar Schoeck's early songs (Nachtgesang WoO No 2, 1900) to the mature Eichendorff songs (Op 30) of 1918; a number of them appear here in premiere recordings.

In Eichendorff's Wanderlied (Op. 12 No.2), the two bass baritones Benedikt Boll and Andr� Sesgor from Clemens Morgenthaler's singing class at the Feldkirch University of Music are featured as the Prague students

In addition to orchestral works and chamber music, Schoeck devoted himself to vocal music. Besides eight operas, he composed more than 400 songs in which he set to music the works of prolific German lyric poets such as Goethe, Eichendorff, Heine, Uhland, Morike or Hesse.

Schoeck composed songs throughout his life and is rightly regarded as one of the most important song composers of the 20th century. For him, for whom poetry was living reality, the message of a poem had to correspond with his own attitude to life and world view in order to achieve a harmony between poetry and music. His compositional radius ranges from the simple folksong-like melody (Die Kapelle Op. 3 No. 2) to the chromatically exuberant eruption (Rastlose Liebe Op. 19a No. 5), without ever losing touch with tonality.