The German Romanticism of the nineteenth century witnessed a rediscovery of the folk song, giving rise to a new intensive interest in the genre and the compilation of collections such as Des Knaben Wunderhorn by Arnim und Brentano and numerous others which propelled the folk song into public focus. Johannes Brahms also displayed a great interest in the folk song and its ideals as is repeatedly evident in numerous examples across the wide spectrum of his compositions. The reason why he never published his Zwölf Volkslieder für Chor op. posth. could be because he placed greater importance on the solo as opposed to choral performance of folk songs in his later years. These twelve folk songs are however mature masterpieces revealing Brahms’ dilemma of aiming to compose simply in a folk style while reluctant to slip out of his professional skin and thereby exploit his skills in four-part writing to the full.

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RE-RELEASE