Italienisches Liederbuch - Italienisches Liederbuch

Composed in feverish bouts interrupted by long periods of inaction, Hugo Wolf�s Italienisches Liederbuch was brought to completion in 1896. The 46 songs are settings of poems in German by Paul Heyse, after Italian folk songs � miniatures with a duration of less than 2 minutes in most cases. Heyse�s collection numbered more than 350 poems, but Wolf ignored the ballads and laments, and concentrated almost exclusively on the rispetti. These are short love poems which chart, against a Tuscan landscape, the everyday jealousies, flirtations, joys and despairs of men and women in love. Heyse�s translations often intensify the simple Italian of the original poems, and in their turn, Wolf�s settings represent a further heightening of emotion. Miniatures they may be, but many of the songs strike unforgettably at the heart.