Fin de siècle – Lieder transcriptions by Clytus Gottwald

The present album collects transcriptions that open an unusual chapter in music history: songs of the fin de siècle, transferred into the sound of an unaccompanied choir. With this, Clytus Gottwald dedicates himself to a repertoire that barely existed in the Late Romantic period. His arrangements open a new space for these songs without altering their structure or harmonic language.

The wide-ranging vocal textures allow the music of Hugo Wolf, Franz Schreker, Richard Strauss, as well as Alma and Gustav Mahler to appear from a different perspective. The separation between singing voice and piano recedes; instead, a total vocal sound emerges that lets the fine harmonic nuances of the originals stand out particularly clearly. Thus, familiar works are not reinvented, but transferred into a scoring that bundles their colors and lines differently.

The selection ranges from folk-influenced miniatures to late Romantic soundscapes and also includes rarely heard pieces. The album thus offers a concentrated look at a repertoire that stands between tradition and modernity, while at the same time making a gap in the choral musical heritage of the turn of the century visible.