Recording Projects
Individual songs have been included in the recorded repertoire of many singers. Significant early Wolf recording artists included Elisabeth Schumann, Heinrich Rehkemper, Heinrich Schlusnus, Josef von Manowarda, Lotte Lehmann, Karl Erb and others. Early post-War collections were recorded by Suzanne Danco, Anton Dermota and Gérard Souzay (all before 1953), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (1954), Hans Hotter (1954), Erna Berger (1956), Heinrich Rehfuss (1955) and Elisabeth Schumann (1958), and important individual songs by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, and Elisabeth Höngen. Gerald Moore was a distinguished accompanist in Wolf song recordings. Fischer-Dieskau published a large collection of Mörike songs with him in March 1959. Two major projects stand out for more comprehensive coverage.
The Hugo Wolf Society was formed in September 1931 for the recording, under the aegis of English His Master's Voice records, a substantial proportion of the song repertoire, in limited editions for subscribers. The selection of artists was restricted to singers under contract to this company. Each volume consisted of six HMV red-label discs (unobtainable separately) and retailed new at $15.00 Am.
Volume I, entirely performed by Elena Gerhardt accompanied by Coenraad V. Bos, presented a selection mainly from the Spanish and Italian songbooks and the Mörike songs. For many years this scarce set was regarded as a collector's prize, and forms a distinct corpus within her recorded art. Later volumes always included more than one singer. Volume II: 16 of the 51 Goethe songs, all (apart from McCormack) accompanied by Coenraad V. Bos, but with Friedrich Schorr's Prometheus with the orchestral accompaniment. Volume III: A selection of 17 items, including three Michelangelo songs, three Mörike songs, four from the Spanisches Liederbuch and six from the Italienisches Liederbuch. All accompanied by Coenraad V. Bos. Volume IV: 30 items from Italienisches Liederbuch. Accompaniments by Coenraad V. Bos, Michael Raucheisen and Hanns Udo Müller. Volume V: A selection of 20 songs (mainly Mörike and Spanisches Liederbuch). Volume VI: Various. Artists included Alexander Kipnis (III, IV, V); Herbert Janssen (II, V); Gerhard Hüsch (II, III, IV, V); John McCormack (accompanied by Edwin Schneider) (II); Alexandre Trianti (II, III); Ria Ginster (IV, V); Friedrich Schorr (II); Elisabeth Rethberg (IV, V); Tiana Lemnitz Each volume was accompanied by a booklet containing a short essay by Ernest Newman (I: Words and Music in Hugo Wolf, II: Wolf's Goethe Songs, III: A Note of Wolf as Craftsman, IV: The Italienisches Liederbuch) together with German texts, English translations (by Winifred Radford) and notes on each song (by Newman).
A Hugo Wolf Lieder Edition was recorded by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Daniel Barenboim during the 1970s for DGG, each volume containing three records. Volume I (1974): Mörike Lieder (Paris Grand Prix du Disque). Volume II (1976): Lieder on poems by Goethe, Heine and Lenau. Volume III (1977): Lieder on poems by Eichendorff, Michelangelo, Robert Reinick, Shakespeare, Byron, Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Joseph Viktor von Scheffel, etc. The accompanying volumes include essays by Hans Jancik, texts of the poems, and translations by Lionel Salter (English) and Jacques Fournier and others (French).
The first project to record every song by Wolf was commenced in 2010, the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth, by Stone Records and the Oxford Lieder Festival. This series of live recordings, featuring a wide variety of singers and Oxford Lieder Festival's artistic director Sholto Kynoch at the piano, is expected to run to 11 or 12 discs and is due to be completed in 2013.
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