Killmayer / Holderlin-Lieder

The "Hölderlin -Lieder" (Hölderlin songs) of Wilhelm Killmayer, now released by WERGO, provide a portrait of the later Hölderlin, the portrait of a person living in solitude and isolation. The poet Hölderlin lived the last 35 years of his life in a tower in Tübingen. The poems which he wrote during this time, bear witness to a man who removed himself from the public, "historical" world, who became a complete "stranger" he had always felt himself to be. Killmayer says about his compositions: "The ethereal purity of this language seems to emanate from another world, after it's restoration to sanity. This tone and it's utopian promise have also informed my musical version. To me, the music of the future will not be complex, but transparent like air." Peter Schreier, the renowned soloist of this recording, participated also in the world premiere of the song cycles.