RUDI STEPHAN (1887-1915): Musik für Harmonium, Complete Songs - Mitternacht, Waldnachmittag, Weihnachtsgefühl, Auf den Tod einer jungen Frau, 7 Lieder, Up de eensame Hallig, Ich will die singen ein Hohelied, 2 ernste Gesänge, Waldstille, Memento vivere (2 versions).

Description: Stephan, double-screwed by war - killed in WWI and his private archive burned in an air raid in WWII - wrote more than 50 songs but all that survive are those here recorded, all but three for the first time. Although the content of the poems he set is melancholy most of the time, sometimes macabre, his response is often far less bleak than you might expect with quite a bit of energy and zest for life evident. As with his orchestral music, he pushes the boundaries of tonality without breaking them and does not completely abandon the prevailing late-romantic idiom while adding some of the expressionistic touches so much in the air at the time. German texts. Sophie Harmsen (mezzo), Alexander Vassiliev (bass), Miri Yampolsky (piano), Ryoko Morooka (reed organ).