Format: 2CD Digipack 

2021 marks the 100-year anniversary of the death of composer Engelbert Humperdinck. In April, DG celebrate his legacy with an album presenting a selection of Humperdinck’s best-known works in beloved recordings from the catalogue (including Solti, Rickenbacher, Lehmann, Fischer-Dieskau and Kauffmann) alongside new recordings of lesser-known gems, including a world premiere recording of Erinnerung – a delightful piano piece only recently discovered.

Homage to Humperdinck

Humperdinck, who is best known for his fairy-tale opera Hänsel und Gretel – one of the most frequently performed operas around the world, was born in 1854 in Siegburg, near Bonn, produced a broad oeuvre that places him in the great heritage of German music history.

This anniversary album is an introduction to his lesser-known chamber music treasures, his splendid Piano Quintet and the late String Quartet in C major – a masterpiece in the genre. It also offers a selection of his most sensitive and beautiful art songs; a rarity: Humperdinck’s unique arrangement for strings and piano of the Prelude to Tristan und Isolde and a world premiere recording: the piano piece Erinnerung. This short and sweet piano piece, is only Humperdinck’s second composition that survived as an autograph. He wrote it at the age of 17 for the poetry album of his beloved sister Ernestine, who died 2 years later. The poetry album was only recently discovered.

The album is rounded off with Humperdinck’s “greatest hits” in recordings from the catalogue, such as highlights from Solti’s famous recording of Hänsel und Gretel and from Königskinder featuring Jonas Kaufmann. The new recordings were made in co-production with Deutschlandfunk Kultur and feature soprano Christina Landshamer, pianist Hinrich Alpers, who also curated the selection of new recordings, and the Schumann Quartet. The 2CD digipack includes a booklet including liner notes and sung texts in English and German.

Tracklist:

CD1

1-4

Shakespeare Suites No. 1 & No.2 (excerpts)
Bamberger Symphoniker
Karl Anton Rickenbacher

5-10

Hänsel und Gretel (excerpts)
Brigitte Fassbaender mezzo-soprano
Lucia Popp soprano
Norma Burrowes soprano
Wiener Philharmoniker ˑ Sir Georg Solti
Bamberger Symphoniker ˑ Fritz Lehmann

11-14

Königskinder (excerpts)
Jonas Kaufmann tenor
Ofelia Sala soprano
Nora Gubisch mezzo-soprano
Detlef Roth baritone
Orchestre National de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon
Armin Jordan
Eberhard Wächter baritone (Der Spielmann)
Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin ˑ Gustav König

15

Prelude to Tristan und Isolde
composed by Richard Wagner; arranged for 2 violins, viola, 2 cellos,
double bass & piano and completed by Engelbert Humperdinck
Schumann Quartett
Yuko Noda cello
Nabil Shehata double bass
Hinrich Alpers piano

16-18

Christmas Songs
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau baritone
Jörg Demus piano
Christina Landshamer soprano
Hinrich Alpers piano

CD2

1

Erinnerung
Hinrich Alpers piano
World Premiere Recording

2-4

Piano Quintet in G Major
Hinrich Alpers piano
Schumann Quartett

5-12

Early Songs
Song cycle on texts by Moritz Leiffmann

13-20

Lieder
Christina Landshamer soprano
Hinrich Alpers piano

21-23

String Quartet in C Major
Schumann Quartett