Friedrich Theodor Fröhlich Lieder & Elegies

Rediscovery of Switzerland's Most Important Early Romantic Composer
 
Friedrich Theodor Fröhlich, born in Brugg in 1803, is probably the most important Early Romantic composer in Switzerland. However, he shares with many of his colleagues the fate of being forgotten after his death in 1836. Today, more than 700 works are kept in the manuscript archive of the Basel University Library. Thanks to the International Friedrich Theodor Fröhlich Society based in Brugg, this legacy has been rediscovered since 2017, edited piece by piece and performed in concerts. Bass-baritone Klaus Mertens follows in Fröhlich's footsteps and, together with lied pianist Volodymyr Lavrynenko, takes an exciting look at Fröhlich's extensive lied oeuvre: Eight Canzonettas on poems by Goethe and Uhland, among others, as well as the Declamatory Songs, in which the performers feel the composer's emotional vibrations, are framed by three elegies for solo piano with a haunting tonal language and sometimes astonishing twists.
 

Klaus Mertens
Volodymyr Lavrynenko