Long regarded by Danish musicians as their secret treasure, the songs of Peter Heise perfectly represent the unique qualities and achievements of the Danish Golden Age. Though mostly not in direct contact with each other, these artists and writers shared a profound interest in exploring and understanding their personal life and experience, and left a body of introspective work which has had a huge impact on European culture. No longer a secret, these songs can now take their rightful place alongside the works of Hans Christian Andersen, Christen Købke, Søren Kierkegaard and so many others.

This is a poetic life’s work, collected, edited and planned by the pianist Christian Westergaard.

The songs by Peter Heise (1830-1879) lived their own lives during his lifetime, spreading amongst the Danish public because of the strength of their beauty and their artistic quality . With time they have been acknowledged as the best of their kind written by a Danish composer.

On an international level, Heise’s songs have so far remained a hidden treasure. This is, first and foremost, because of the difficulties non-Danes have with the language, for Heise composed nearly exclusively to texts in Danish and Norwegian. There have, too, been very few recordings of his songs. With this new edition we can hear nearly all of them for the first time, nearly 300 songs in all.

This release takes a step forward by presenting some of Heise’s songs in new translations in German, English and French.

This recording features no fewer than 18 singers, including some of Denmark’s hallmark international singers, Elsa Dreisig and Bo Skovhus.

This box set is the first to collect virtually all Heise’s songs. Around 100 of them have never been recorded before.

Westergaard has divided the songs into groups which show the principal themes in Heise’s work, each of the 11 CDs containing a new theme.

Contents:

CD 1
Norden (The North)

CD 2
Erotiske digte (Erotic Poems)

CD 3
Guldalderbilleder (Images from the Golden Age)

CD 4
Efterklange (Echoes)

CD 5
Kennst du das Land

CD 6
There be none of Beauty’s daughters

CD 7
Dyveke

CD 8
Versfortælling og Vaudeville (Narrative Poems and Vaudevile)

CD 9
Sværmerier (Visions)

CD 10
Indvielsen (The Invitation)

CD 11
Gudrun