Composer of the month:
Hugo Wolf

The Austrian composer Hugo Wolf was born on 13 March 1860 in Windischgrätz, a town that is now in Slovenia. His father started to give him piano and violin lessons at the age of four. He became a great admirer of Beethoven and this inspired him to start composing at an early age.

Wolf studied at the Konservatorium der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna from 1875 to 1877 where one of his teachers was Robert Fuchs. This was not an inspiring environment for him, but he did meet a fellow student called Gustav Mahler and they became good friends.

He was expelled from the conservatory before completing his studies as a result of a prank in the form of a threatening letter to the director of the school, a prank in which he was probably not even involved.

Wolf was a great admirer of the music of Wagner, and detested Brahms. This love of Wagner's music means that Wolf is now considered to be the first composer to include Wagnerian influences in German lieder. Wolf was nevertheless also able to establish a personal style and not only copy his great example.

Wolf was extremely productive from 1888 to 1891 when he composed more than 200 lieder and this established his reputation as a composer. He also wrote music for plays, chamber music, two opera's and works for orchestra and choir, but many of these pieces were never completed. The opera Der Corregidor was well received during its premiere in Mannheim in 1896 , but has since been largely forgotten. It is an original and lively work, but the storyline is not strong.

Wolf could not handle setbacks and had a poor mental health. He suffered from depressions that alternated with manic periods of feverish creativity. He was admitted to the Landesirrenanstalt, an asylum in Vienna, in 1898. He eventually became insane and died there on the 22 February 1903.

Wolf is now considered to be one of the most important composers from the German-Austrian Late Romantic period. Singers including Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Jo Vincent, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and pianists including Gerald Moore and Erik Werba have been important ambassadors of his work.

Composer of the month: Monday 22 and Wednesday 24 January at 09:00 CET.