Joseph Haydn:
Cupido (Gottlieb Leon)
Die zu späte Ankunft der Mutter (Ch.F. Weiße)
She never told her love (Shakespeare)
Eine sehr gewöhnliche Geschichte (Ch.F. Weiße)
Trost unglücklicher Liebe
Der erste Kuss (J.G. Jacobi)

Josef Anton Steffan:
Dein süßes Bild (Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock)
Das Mädchen am Ufer (Joh. Gottfried Herder)

Carl Friberth:
Warnung an die Mädchen (in Ramlers Blumenlese)

Mauro Giuliani:
Romance
Mon coeur soupire

Leopold Kozeluch:
Vogelstellerlied (Moritz August von Thümmel)
An die kleine Schöne (Gotthold Ephraim Lessing)

Johann Holzer:
Zwei Augen (Alois Blumauer)
Kupido (Gottlieb Leon)
Liebeslied (Gottlieb Leon)

Martin Ruprecht:
Romanze

Franz Anton Hoffmeister:
Der Entschluss

The idea for this recording originated from a direct comparison of the two songs “Cupido” and “Kupido” by the famous composer Joseph Haydn and the lesser-known Viennese composer Johann Holzer. Although both masters use the same text, the musical settings differ considerably in both nature and form. While Haydn’s tunes present the content with a twinkle in the eye and a great deal of subtlety, Holzer’s piece invites the listener to dance along, sparkling with joie de vivre and musicality.

Joseph Haydn’s songs encompass a wide musical range and are of invaluable significance for the development of the genre: they represent a crucial part in the advancement of the Viennese lied, leading up to Franz Schubert.

Around the same time, between 1778 and 1791, a song collection of the highest quality was produced in Vienna, the importance of which has been completely forgotten over the centuries. Josef Anton Steffan, Johann Holzer, Carl Friberth, Leopold Kozeluch, Martin Ruprecht and Franz Anton Hoffmeister were only some of the many highly creative composers based in the Austrian imperial city. These composers prepared the ground for the accomplished art songs of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.

As with many Viennese characteristics, a wide variety of stylistic devices are intermingled: folk-like elements, characteristics of the Singspielied and the North German lied are formed into a completely new musical genre with the additional influence of the Italian aria.

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Recorded at St. Michael Kirche St. Marien, Austria, 15-17 September 2022. Grand piano after Johann Georg Gröber (Innsbruck, 1815). Johann Anton Stauffer inspired Romanesque guitar Viennese design type ~1850 anonymous, covered with gut strings.