Hugo Wolf (composer)

Hugo Philipp Jacob Wolf was an Austrian composer of Slovene origin, particularly noted for his art songs, or Lieder. He brought to this form a concentrated expressive intensity which was unique in late Romantic music, somewhat related to that of the Second Viennese School in concision but diverging greatly in technique.

Though he had several bursts of extraordinary productivity, particularly in 1888 and 1889, depression frequently interrupted his creative periods, and his last composition was written in 1898, before he suffered a mental collapse caused by syphilis.

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Recording of the Week, Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch from Jonas Kaufmann, Diana Damrau and Helmut Deutsch

11th January 2019

The German tenor, soprano and pianist have a ball with Wolf's 46 miniatures on love, loss and fickleness, recorded live in concert in Essen last year.