Austrian composer
Johanna Mueller-Hermann
and Germany's
Margarete Schweikert
were both successful composers in their own time, supported by their families and with many dozens of publications to their credit. Yet the rediscovery of music by women, somewhat less active in German-speaking lands than in France or the anglophone sphere, has largely bypassed both composers. From the evidence on this 2023 release by mezzo-soprano
Kitty Whately
, with invaluable contributions by veteran accompanist
Joseph Middleton
, that is a major omission. In this unrelievedly grim program featuring
Mahler
's
Kindertotenlieder
("
Songs of Dead Children
") in its voice-and-piano version, the contributions of
Mueller-Hermann
and
Schweikert
more than hold their own. Interestingly the songs of
are the more modern of the pair, even though she hailed from the provincial German city of Karlsruhe; she was born nine years after
, and in the fast-moving stylistic world of the turn of the century that made a lot of difference, but both composers were breathing the same air as
Strauss
, and setting a lot of the same poets.
inclined a bit toward women writers. Sample her bleakly declamatory
Der letzte Abend, Op. 2, No. 4
("The Last Evening"), to a text by
Ricarda Octavia Huch
. The various
songs and especially
's cycle receive committed, intense performances from
Whately
, whose recordings are rather infrequent but always well considered, and
Chandos
' Potton Hall sound is clear and completely idiomatic. However, the songs by
here are the main attraction, and they may well rewrite a chunk of the lieder repertory. This album appeared on classical best-seller charts in early 2023. ~ James Manheim