Schreker: Complete Songs for Voice and Piano, Vol. 1 | Classical Music Collection | Perfect for Vocal Performances & Piano Recitals

This CD contains thirty songs from Franz Schreker's early period. Schreker isn't a well-known composer, and this certainly has much to do with growing anti-Semitism in Austria at the time. He is mostly known for his operas (like "Die Gezeichneten"), but this CD proves that he was also a gifted songwriter.Most of the songs address the subjects of love, love lost and death, especially the death of children, which calls Mahler to mind. Each song is carefully constructed in the manner of Schubert with the harmonic progressions typical of early German modernist composers.The audio quality is perfectly acceptable with both voice and piano coming through clearly.One of the CD's gems is "Das hungernde Kind," based on a text from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn," a source that Mahler used very frequently.If you like the music of Gustav Mahler, Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert and Alexander von Zemlinsky, I thoroughly recommend this CD. Enjoy!