Pejacevic: Lieder

Danz, Ingeborg, Garben, Cord

CPO 777422

Following the release of Dora Pejacevic's principal symphonic works (9983873) and two of her chamber compositions (8363939), our edition of her music continues with a volume featuring her songs for voice and piano, some of which number among her top creative achievements. The CD presents almost the whole of this Croatian composer's vocal oeuvre and does so in chronological order. Her songs comprise fourteen opus numbers and a total of thirty-three songs; those involving the setting of poems by one and the same poet are designed as cycles. Vocal poetry was constantly present during the composer's short creative life – she died at the age of thirty-eight – and reflects her artistic questing as well as her musical maturation process. She initially composed effective concert pieces with delightful vocal melodies but then, following Verwandlung, a vocal setting of Karl Kraus's poem of the same name (1915), sought »special« standout texts. As a result, her mature vocal compositions rank as encounters with the poetry of Karl Kraus, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Friedrich Nietzsche. Her musical expressive style breaks out of the traditional song corset, and within the parameters of expanded tonality she develops new discoveries pertaining to harmony, texture, and coloration and exploring a freer treatment of form.

CD x 1

CPO

5/23/12

761203742226