Essay collection 'Der ganze Hugo Wolf'

Between 2016 and 2023, the Internationale Hugo-Wolf-Akademie presented all of Hugo Wolf's piano songs in its series ‘Der ganze Hugo Wolf’. Over 30 artists took part in the 16 concerts curated and conceived by Brazilian pianist Marcelo Amaral. The renowned American musicologist Susan Youens has written essayistic introductory texts for all the programmes in this series, which convey an incomparable overall picture of Wolf's song oeuvre. Thus, after the series was completed, Susan Youens' short, witty thoughts on each of Hugo Wolf's songs were available - an immeasurable treasure that this collection now brings together in the original English and German translations by the Canadian musicologist Harald Krebs. The result is a unique encyclopaedia on Hugo Wolf's songs.

Susan Youens' reputation in the English-speaking world is immense. None other than the British song pianist Graham Johnson writes about Susan Youens in his preface to this collection: 'No one working today knows more about the German Lied than Susan Youens, and few can approach her gift for writing about it. Her ability to capture the significance of every Wolf song in a few sentences is the results of lifelong immersion. As with the music of the composer himself, she counterpoints light-hearted moments with deep seriousness.' In Germany, however, Susan Youens has been far too little known - because her astute books, characterised by incredible knowledge and always written with great charm and affection, have not yet been translated into German. We are therefore even more pleased that we can now finally make this almost infinite knowledge of Hugo Wolf's songs available in German-speaking countries - and at the same time present an overview of Hugo Wolf's song oeuvre that has never been available before.