CHARLES MARTIN LOEFFLER (1861-1935): La chanson des Ingénues, Harmonie du soir, 4 poèmes, Op. 5, FRANK BRIDGE (1879-1941): 3 Songs, H 76, FRANZ LISZT (1811-1886): Les pleurs des femmes, Romance oubliée for Viola and Piano, JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897): 2 Lieder, Op. 91, DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975): Ophelia's Song from Suite, Op. 127, CHRISTIAN JOST (b.1963): Hamlet Echoes.

Description: All these songs are for the unusual trio of voice, viola and piano. Collectors will be most attracted by the 27 minutes of Loeffler, often elegant in a Gallic manner (the texts are four Verlaines and two Baudelaires) but not as somber and melancholy as those symbolist poets might lead you to expect. No more somber than the Liszt pairt, the instrumental Romance a shortened version of the older song Les pleurs. Also rare are Bridge's three in late Romantic style from 1906-07, otherwise only available in Hyperion's 15-year-old two-CD set. Texts in original languages. Stella Doufexis (soprano), Pauline Sachse (viola), Daniel Heide (piano).