In this entertaining recital, the chronological arrangement of the songs affords a fair view of Krenek’s stylistic development across nearly 40 years (1926-65). And quite a development it was, too, from the radiant O Lacrymosa, three further musings by Rilke on the Virgin Mary, to the near-volcanic Wechselrahmen (“Changing Settings”), to poems by Emil Barth. Date of composition and subject alone would point to Hindemith’s Das Marienleben as the example for O Lacrymosa, even were the musical language not so suggestive of it. More individual in execution is Stella’s Monolog (1928), on lines from Goethe’s play Stella. Cast as a dramatic scena, this compositional tour de force (Krenek had seven stage works under his belt by this time) has a wide range of moods, some of buffa-like airiness at odds with the text’s romantic ardour, suggesting a send-up.
When in 1937 Krenek came to set five brief stanzas by Kafka, he had finally embraced Schoenberg’s 12-note method. The Kafka songs, Op. 82, as well as those of Op. 112 (1946-7, setting Gerard Manley Hopkins) show a concomitant spareness of texture, but his setting of Donne’s The Flea (1960) is wonderfully exuberant, while Wechselrahmen’s extremity of expression is entirely apposite given Krenek’s tirelessly adventurous spirit. Christine Schafer is nothing if not a sympathetic interpreter; a touch shrill in the topmost registers, her voice is big enough to cope with these songs’ widely varying demands. Axel Bauni gives first-class support and the recording sounds bright and truthful. A must for anyone remotely interested in Lieder, of the twentieth century or any other.
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