Sigfrid Karg-Elert

Ten Epigrams by Lessing

Since the 1970s, Karg-Elert's organ, harmonium and piano music has been systematically rediscovered, but his song compositions have not yet received the same attention. Wrongly so, for his approx. 200 solo songs are first-rate compositions, written in a wealth of different forms ranging from through-composed to strophic settings. The editors Ernst Breidenbach and Markus Schäfer have also contributed to the rediscovery of these gems with several concerts and a CD recording of selected songs.

Karg-Elert is actually the first composer since Haydn to make a name for himself with settings of Lessing. His "cheerful, light-hearted" songs join a tradition of humorous piano songs, a tradition that can at best be described as incomplete.