Although Wolf entertained extravagant ambitions as a composer of orchestral, choral and chamber music and of operas, the musical world honours him as a great - some would say the greatest - master of the German art song: the lied. In the first of five programmes, Jeremy Sams traces the main events of Wolf's short and turbulent life:
Auch Kleine Dinge (Italian Songbook) Elisabeth Schumann (soprano), Gerald Moore (piano)
Early songs sung by Nico van der Meel (tenor) and Barbara Bonney (soprano) Adagio (String Quartet in D minor) Artis Quartet
Italian Serenade
Hollywood Quartet
Eichendorff and Morike settings sung by Alexander Kipnis (bass) and Barbara Bonney (soprano)
Spanish and Italian Songbooks (excerpts) sung by Gerhard Husch (baritone) and Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo)
Producer Peter Tanner