Episode 216. The Lieder of Joseph Marx

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This week (inspired by an 10-inch LP in my collection of his songs performed by Anton Dermota and Wilma Lipp, both stalwarts of the Wiener Staatsoper in the 1950s) I present an introduction to the Lieder of Austrian composer Joseph Marx (1882 – 1964). His songs are most frequently compared to Richard Strauss and Hugo Wolf and are distinctly post-Romantic in style and harmony, but they also exhibit traits unique to their composer. As with so many figures from this period in European history, his legacy is shadowed in controversy, which I discuss at length. In the end, I believe it is his contribution as an inspired composer, particularly of song, for which he should be most remembered. Alongside Lipp and Dermota, some of the other singers heard in the episode include Ljuba Welitsch, Irmgard Seefried, Angelika Kirchschlager, Leontyne Price, Lotte Lehmann, Waldemar Kmentt, John Charles Thomas, Florence Easton, and Arleen Augér. Pianists include Marx himself, as well as Erik Werba and Paul Ulanowsky, both of whom studied with him. If you only know one or two of Marx’s songs (or if you don’t know his work at all), you are in for a glorious surprise!

RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE

All songs composed by Joseph Marx. Poets, singers, and pianists as indicated.

Otto Erich Hartleben: Selige Nacht. Lotte Lehmann, Ernő Balogh [1937]

Paul Heyse: Venetianisches Wiegenlied. Wilma Lipp, Joseph Marx [Wien 24.XI.51]

Richard Dehmel: Waldseligkeit. Anton Dermota, Joseph Marx [ca. 1951]

Paul Heyse: Die tote Braut. Angelika Kirchschlager, Anthony Spiri [2009]

Joseph von Eichendorff: Erinnerung. Irmgard Seefried, Erik Werba [Wien 05.X.51]

Heinrich Goebel (after Knut Hamsun): Der Ton. Leontyne Price, David Garvey [live Chicago 10.I.81]

Gustav Falke: Gebet. John Charles Thomas, Carroll Hollister [1938]

Unknown poet: Warnung. Kendra Colton, Laura Ward [2020]

Oskar Falke: Windräder. Dorothy Irving, Erik Werba [1974]

Anton Wildgans: Durch Einsamkeiten. Mitsuko Shirai, Tabea Zimmermann, Hartmut Höll [1995]

Rainer Maria Rilke: Traumgekrönt. Waldemar Kmentt, Erik Werba [Wien 15.XII.51]

Otto Erich Hartleben [after Albert Giraud]: Valse de Chopin. Ljuba Welitsch, Paul Ulanowsky [1950]

Novalis [né Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg]: Marienlied. Arleen Augér, Miltiades Caridis, Tonkünstlerorchester Niederösterreich [Wien 15.V.81]