Vegetarians beware – the climax of this recital is Korngold’s song, to his own text, in celebration of a rich goose-liver paté, Die Gansleber im Hause Duschnitz. Composed in 1919, it was a ‘thank-you’ note after a dinner party given by the Korngolds’ friend Rudi Duschnitz. A rollicking waltz motif permeates the song, which is half sung, half spoken. Dietrich Henschel performs it with a good Viennese accent. If Korngold had had the opportunity, he could have been a cabaret songwriter as well.

The main news here for devotees is the first complete recording of the 12 Lieder to poems by Eichendorff, composed in 1911, when Korngold was 14. All but three of these have remained unpublished until now. The three that Korngold selected for his Op 9 group in 1916 have been recorded before, notably by Steven Kimbrough, accompanied by Dalton Baldwin (Acanta, nla). The 12 songs vary considerably in mood and style, one cannot really say that they hang together as a cycle. Henschel gives a robust performance but he immediately seems more at home with the later songs. By 1916 Korngold had struck his own style and the yearning melodies in ‘Liebesbriefchen’ and ‘Sommer’ are unmistakable. The latter in particular, to a poem by Siegfried Trebitsch, is particularly attractive with its accompaniment suggesting the blackbird’s song described by the poet. ‘Nachts’, another Trebitsch poem, is also quietly eloquent, but with a sudden, curiously flashy ending.

The four Lieder des Abschieds were the first of Korngold’s Lieder to be recorded, in 1924 by Rosette Anday, accompanied by the composer. The last song, ‘Gefaster Abschied’, words by Ernst Lothar, has a quite beautiful soft climactic phrase from Henschel. Nearly all these songs seem to have been composed with a woman’s voice in mind, and occasionally Henschel is taxed by the typically soaring lines. The five songs in English, Op 38 are dedicated to Maria Jeritza, though it seems unlikely that she ever performed them in public. This is mature Korngold, with all the experience of his Hollywood success, master of the melody lurking within the accompaniment, waiting to take the listener by surprise.

Brendan Carroll, Korngold’s biographer, provides the notes and points out the many links between the songs and the film music. Henschel’s English is remarkably clear. Some of these songs have already been recorded by Anne Sofie von Otter (DG, 6/99), and those who have that two-disc set of Korngold chamber music and Lieder may feel that they have enough already. Korngold’s Lieder can only be considered as a case of ‘what might have been’. Nevertheless, there are some beautiful things here, including a fine performance of Korngold’s last song, ‘Sonnett für Wien’. The sound is first rate and Helmut Deutsch accompanies with tact, never overdoing the schmaltz.