Diepenbrock: Complete Songs

An all-star vocal line-up draws every nuance from the lush harmonies and word-setting of this late-Romantic Dutch master: the first time that his complete songs have been released in a single set.

Now best known for his 'symphonic songs' such as the Hymne an die Nacht, Alphons Diepenbrock won the admiration of his contemporaries Mahler and Strauss for the confident, post-Wagnerian
handling of large orchestral forces in support of vocal lines soaked in passion and grief. Unlike them, however, he was chiefly inspired by poetry, and his output is dominated by vocal works, which are
particularly fine in atmospheric evocation. Even when writing for the sparer medium of voice and piano,
Diepenbrock laid his songs out expansively, underscored with yearning Wagnerian harmonies, and any listener in search of repertoire beyond the songs of Mahler and Strauss is in for a treat.