This is the first Solo Album by the bass Franz-Josef Selig, who is of course one of the most significant bass voices since years in the opera section. Now he takes on the bass Lieder of three important Lieder specialists together with his accompanist Gerold Huber. Franz-Josef Selig has made his

Personal reflection on the selection of Lieder on this CD

“Everything that emerges comes to an end; everything, everywhere, passes away...” (Michelangelo). The finiteness of being eventually concerns us all, sooner or later. As we follow these thoughts, music and poetry may serve as welcome guides who paint the most diverse images of fear, pain and terror, but also of reconciliation with death’s inevitability. Supported by a philosophical or theological underpinning, the poet/musician wrestles with his own fear or confronts life’s past experiences. However, in many cases, death is not described as a hopeless ending, but as a friend we should learn to trust. Trust – one of the most positive human virtues – is what many composers are trying to express in their music. Thus, a somber collection of lieder such as this one does not have to be taken at face value as something merely sinister or depressing, but hopefully also as an invitation to face our own mortality with courage: an ongoing attempt to prepare for that which is intangible and unavoidable. How wonderful, then, if one day we could say to Nature, like the poet in Richard Strauss’s song Das Tal: “So quietly open your mouth, accept me, close it once more, and go on blooming, healthy and cheerful as always”. (Franz-Josef Selig)