Mendelssohn Lieder

On his new solo album, Russian star pianist Denis Kozhukhin presents a personal and colourful collection of character pieces taken from Mendelssohn's Lieder ohne Worte and Edvard Grieg's Lyric Pieces. Combing these miniature gems by two outstanding poets of music, Kozhukhin provides a shining example of how disarmingly touching and penetrating a simple song or a vision of nature captured in sound can be. The program features classics such as Mendelssohn's Venetian Gondola Song and Grieg's Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, as well as less famous but equally enchanting pieces. Kozhukhin lifts out the noble simplicity of these works with his delicate playing.

Felix Mendelssohn was only nineteen years old when little sister Fanny noted in her diary: 'My birthday party was fun… Felix gave me a' song without words' for my album; he would later write more of those fine pieces. ' In total it became eight albums, each with six Lieder ohne Worte. Someone once compared them to wild flowers, with Chopin's Nocturnes being compared to orchids. And of course those so-called orchids are by far the best represented in the catalogs and discographies. Fortunately there has been at least one great pianist who has still looked back to the Lieder ohne Worte. This 1974 set of Mendelssohn's complete Songs without Words, which Barenboim plays with such affectionate finesse, has dominated the catalog for nearly two decades, according to The Penguin Guide.

Songs Without Words (Lieder ohne Worte) is a series of short lyrical songs (Lieder), with piano accompaniment, by the Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn written between 1829 and 1845.