Othmar Schoeck’s song cycles, some with piano, others with instrumental ensemble or full orchestra, represent one of the last great flowerings of the romantic lieder tradition. Outside his native Switzerland at least, his music is heard far less often than it deserves to be, but the baritone Christian Gerhaher at least seems determined to promote its cause; in 2009 he released a recording of Schoeck’s Notturno for voice and string quartet, and now he has turned his attention to Elegie, a collection of settings of poems by Eichendorff and Lenau, which was completed in 1922.
