Gloomy and threatening, almost completely covered by low hanging clouds and wafts of mist, the night sky weighs down on the poetic world of romantic poetry, directing our gaze into the abysses of the human soul.

This recording offers endless torments of love, our own transience and consuming longing for death in the form of various Lieder.

Together with his congenial partner Katharina Olivia Brand on the fortepiano, countertenor Franz Vitzthum delves deep into Romantic realms and presents songs by Schubert and Mendelssohn, Carl Friedrich Zelter, Anselm Hüttenbrenner and Johann Hoven, as well as quite unknown composers such as Josephine Caroline Lang, Charlotte Bender, Ernst Friedrich Kauffmann and Johann Friedrich von Dalberg.

It may seem strange to some that a countertenor would venture into Romantic song!

But the moment of surprise lasts only a few seconds, as Franz Vitzthum’s clear and expressive voice convinces immediately and takes the listener on a well thought-out journey into the darkness of the romantic night...