HMR Project: History of Music & Modern Recording

Hugo Wolf

Hugo Wolf was born on 13 March 1860 in Windischgrätz, Austria (now Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia). He began playing piano and violin at age four. Schooled locally until age 10, he left home for the Gymnasium at Graz in 1870, the Gymnasium at St. Paul in 1872 and at Marburg in 1874. His Op 1 is an unfinished sonata written circa 1875 while attending the latter Gymnasium, existing in fragments and so ignored that most catalogues don't bother to list it. His Op 2 was completed about the same time and yet exists, 'Variations' in C for piano. Wolf entered the Vienna Conservatory in 1875 where he met Wagner with whom he shared a strong distaste for Brahms. He wrote 'Traurige Wege' in January 1877 to text by Nikolaus Lenau.

'Variations' Op 2 Hugo Wolf 1875

Piano: Emese Virág

IMSLP

'Traurige Wege' ('Sad Pathways') Hugo Wolf

Completed Jan 1877 No.3 of 'Lieder aus der Jugendzeit' ('Songs From Youth') C 1878

Text by Nikolaus Lenau

Piano: Dido Keuning Tenor: Nico van der Meel

IMSLP Text Text Text Roger Vignoles

Wolf was expelled from the Conservatory in early 1877 for outspoken criticism. Upon getting the boot, he taught in Vienna and discovered benefactors permitting him more time to compose. Ernest Newman has Wolf writing 'Morgentau' ('Morning Dew') in June of 1877, that to go toward 'Sechs Lieder fur eine Frauenstimme' not published until 1888. In 1880 Wolf began work on the twenty songs of Joseph von Eichendorff in his 'Eichendorff-Lieder' (W 2) eventually published in 1889. Richard Stokes at Hyperion has Wolf composing 'Erwartung' No.18 and 'Die Nacht' No.19 as early as 1880, albeit IMSLP has all twenty songs written from 1886 to 1888. Classical Archives and Hyperion include several Eichendorf songs not belonging to Wolf's 'Eichendorff-Lieder'. One is 'Nachruf' ('In Memorium') composed in 1880.

'Morgentau' ('Morning Dew') Hugo Wolf

Completed June 1877

No.1 of 'Sechs Lieder fur eine Frauenstimme' ('Six Songs for a Female Voice') W 6/1

Text by Reinhold (?)

Piano: Gerald Moore Soprano: Elisabeth Schwarkopf

IMSLP John Palmer Text Text Text Text

'Nachruf' ('In Memorium') Hugo Wolf 1880

Text by Joseph von Eichendorff

Piano: Ammiel Bushakevitz Mezzo-soprano: Anna Lucia Richter

Wigmore Hall in London Oct 2021

IMSLP Text Text

Upon Wagner's death in 1883 Wolf found another composer to champion in Franz Liszt, meanwhile finding Anton Rubinstein utterly unpleasant. Wolf's censorious nature wouldn't serve him well when, after a brief term as second kapellmeister in Salzburg in 1882, he returned to Vienna to publish his first weekly review in the 'Wiener Salonblatt' in 1883. Wolf's gig with the 'Salonblatt' came to an end in 1887, his negative treatment of Brahms particularly unpopular. In the meantime Wolf's symphonic poem, 'Penthesilea', was finished and ready for premiere in 1885 by the Vienna Philharmonic to whom Wolf submitted it, though it was neither performed nor published in his lifetime. In Kleist's erotic yet violent version of the contest between Achilles and Penthesilea during the Trojan War, the Amazonian queen slays Achilles rather than the other way around.

'Penthesilea' (Amazon queen) W 16 in F minor Symphonic poem by Hugo Wolf

Comp 1883-85

NDR Symphony Orchestra / Winfried Zillig 1955

Adrian Corleonis Steve Dowden IMSLP Wikipedia English Wikipedia Français

Wolf early ceased attempting to assign opus numbers to his works. His Op 14 of 1876 was his last, an unfinished piano sonata in G minor. Beginning to write songbooks in 1886 would necessitate another system in which songbooks are assigned "W" numbers which refer to the 'Kritische Gesamtausgabe' ('Critical Complete Edition') by the International Hugo Wolf Society of Vienna, that project of 1956 to 1991 headed by Hans Jancik, from 1991 to 1998 by Leopold Spitzer [Wikipedia]. 'The Complete Edition' was published by the Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag Wien (MVW) in 1998. Wolf's W 1 is assigned to the 53 pieces of 'Morike-Lieder' of Eduard Mörike that he composed in 1888-89. Wolf's W 2 that is 'Eichendorff-Lieder' of twenty pieces (above) would seem chronologically inconsistent, being earlier composed from 1886-1888 [IMSLP]. But it was published in 1889, probably following ''Morike-Lieder' also first published in 1889.

'Morike-Lieder' W 1 Hugo Wolf Pub 1889

Heft 4 No.51: 'Bei einer Trauung' ('At a Wedding')

Heft 4 No.49: 'Zur Warnung' ('Word of Warning')

Heft 4 No.53: 'Abschied' ('Farewell')

Baritone: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Piano: Hartmut Höll

Alan Beggerow IMSLP Text Text

Wolf's 'Goethe-Lieder' (W 3) of 51 songs by Johann Goethe was much composed alongside 'Morike-Lieder' about the same time toward publishing in 1889. Favored among Wolf's songs by Goethe are his four 'Mignon' with 'Mignon I-III' assigned to Nos. 5-7 and 'Mignon: Kennst du das Land?' assigned to No.9.

'Goethe-Lieder' W 3 Hugo Wolf

Comp C 1875 Pub 1889 Vienna by C. Lacom

No.5 'Mignon I': 'Heiß mich nicht reden' ('Do not bid me speak')

Text Text

No.6 'Mignon II': 'Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt' ('Only those who know longing')

Text Text

No.7 'Mignon III': 'So laßt mich scheinen' ('So let me appearl')

Text Text

No. 9 'Mignon': 'Kennst du das Land?' ('Do You Know the Land?')

Shawn Jaeger Score Text Text Text

Contralto: Helen Watts Piano: Geoffrey Parsons

IMSLP Texts

In 1891 Wolf published his 'Spanisches Liederbuch' (W 4), a collection of 44 songs in two volumes written from October 1889 to April 1890 to 'Spanisches Liederbuch' by Paul Heyse and Emanuel Geibel published in 1852. 'Spanisches Liederbuch' is a collection of Spanish and Portuguese folk songs and poems by either known or anonymous authors. The initial ten of 'Spanisches Liederbuch' are geistliche lieder (sacred songs). The remaining 34 are weltliche lieder (secular songs). Wolf published this collection in 1891. The six songs recorded by Jessye Norman below are secular lieder.

'Spanisches Liederbuch' W 4 Hugo Wolf

Oct 1889-April 1890 to texts by Emanuel Geibel and Paul Heyse

'Weltliche Lieder' ('Secular Songs'):

No.36: 'Bedeckt mich mit Blumen' ('Cover me with flowers')

Geibel after María Doceo

No.33: 'Tief im Herzen trag' ich Pein' ('Deep in my heart I bear pain')

Geibel after Luiz Vaz de Camõens

No.26: 'Bitt' ihn, o Mutter' ('Pray for him, O Mother')

Heyse after Anonymous

No.12: 'In dem Schatten meiner Locken' ('In the shadow of my curls')

Heyse after Anonymous

No.31: 'Alle gingen, Herz, zur Ruh' ('All went, heart, to rest')

Geibel after Anonymous

No.44: 'Geh' Geliebter, geh jetzt!' ('Go, beloved, go now!')

Geibel after Anonymous

Soprano: Jessye Norman Piano: James Levine April 1990 in New York

Michael Stanley Durham Jr. IMSLP John Palmer Wikipedia

'Geistliche Lieder' ('Secular Songs') Nos.1-10: Texts Texts

'Weltliche Lieder' ('Secular Songs') Nos.11-44: Texts Texts

Wolf's 'Italienisches Liederbuch' (W 5) was written between September 1890 and December 1891 toward publishing in 1893, that a collection of 46 lieder documented by Heyse from Italian folk songs.

'Italienisches Liederbuch' W 5 Hugo Wolf

Nos.1-22 comp Sep1890-Dec 1891 Pub 1892

Nos.23-46 comp March 1896-Aug 1896 Pub 1896

Soprano: Pamela Coburn w pianist Helmut Deutsch

Baritone: Hermann Prey w pianist Thomas Leander

IMSLP Graham Johnson Texts Texts Wikipedia

Of the two operas that Wolf wrote he completed only the comedy, 'Der Corregidor', with libretto by Rosa Mayreder, that premiering at the Nationaltheater Mannheim on 7 June 1896. A corregidor is a provincial magistrate who represents Spanish royalty at a local level. In this story the corregidor is one Don Eugenio de Zuniga who has designs on Frasquita, wife of Lucas, the local miller. Wolf left his other opera, 'Manuel Venegas', unfinished in 1897, the same year he wrote his 'Michelangelo-Lieder' consisting of three songs written by Walter Heinrich Robert-Tornow after the painter, Michelangelo Buonarroti.

'Der Corregidor Suite' W 12 Comic opera by Hugo Wolf

Comp 1895 Premiere 7 June 1896 at the Nationaltheater in Mannheim Pub 1896 / 1904

Libretto: Rosa Mayreder (nee Obermayer)

L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande / Horst Stein

IMSLP Wikipedia

'Michelangelo-Lieder' W 6/7 Hugo Wolf Comp 1897

Texts: Walter Heinrich Robert-Tornow after Michelangelo Buonarroti

No.1: ' Wohl denk ich oft an mein vergangnes Leben' ('I often think of my past life')

No.2: 'Alles endet, was entstehet' ('All must end that has beginning')

No.3: 'Fühlt meine Seele das ersehnte Licht' ('Does my soul feel the longed-for light')

Baritone: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Piano: Gerald Moore Berlin 1959

IMSLP Text Text

The songs of 'Michelangelo-Lieder' were Wolf's final compositions before being placed in a mental home in 1897. Released four months later in January of 1898, he attempted to drown himself the next October. At his own request he was that month committed to an asylum in Vienna where he died on 22 February 1903 of syphilis three weeks shy of his 43rd birthday.

Sources & References for Hugo Wolf:

BBC Music Magazine

Roger Dettmer (All Music)

The Independent

Ernest Newman (Hugo Wolf / Methuen & Company / 1907) (alt)

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Programme (37th season of the Boston Symphony Orchestra / Harvard University / 1918)

Jure Rozman (The formation of a style: selected early works by Hugo Wolf / Louisiana State University / 2007)

VF History (notes)

Wikipedia English

Audio of Hugo Wolf: Corpora:

Classical Archives Europeana Hyperion Liber Liber Naxos Presto YouTube