Dominating this 12th volume of an uneven but very rewarding series are two groups of songs. Loewe's Heine Liederkreis of 1832 anticipates Schumann's by eight years, and responds with a direct and touching lyricism to the chosen poems. Only 'Ich hab' im Traum geweint' overlaps with Schumann's pain-racked setting, and in no way contends with it. There is throughout these songs a gentleness and a sensitivity to the words to which Yvi Janicke responds well. She has a bright, well-focused voice, with very clear enunciation, and an intelligent simplicity in phrasing the music. She and Cord Garben work together sympathetically, both in the light fancies of songs such as 'Der verliebte Maikafer' or 'Schwalbenmarchen' and in the most powerful group on the record, Gregor auf dem Stein.
This is among Loewe's finest works, one in which his understanding of ballad narrative joins with what could be a dark and passionate imagination. The five linked songs tell the story which was also to be the subject of Thomas Mann's harrowing novel known in English as The Holy Sinner. Gregor, fruit of his sibling parents' incest, like Oedipus then also unwittingly marries his mother. He must expiate this double shame on a lake-girt rock, from which after many years of suffering he is summoned to Rome, and as Pope can bestow absolution on his now aged mother. Loewe sets the tale strongly and movingly, with skilful adumbrations of darkness as the depth of Gregor's tragic guilt is revealed. Janicke and Garben perform it beautifully, without melodramatics but with an intensity that skilfully resolves into the simplicity of the final forgiveness.'