Harbingers of Exile. Songs from the In-Between
Florian Störtz (bass-baritone); Aleksandra Myslek (piano)
rec. 2025, Parish Church of St Cuthbert, Edinburgh
German texts and English translations included
Delphian DCD34349 [72]

I first heard the German bass-baritone, Florian Störtz when he sang solos on one or two recordings by the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge under Stephen Layton (review ~ review). On each occasion I admired his contributions, so I was keen to hear what I think is his first solo recital disc. He’s partnered here by the Polish pianist, Aleksandra Myslek.

They have devised an uncommonly interesting programme which shines a spotlight on the songs of a German composer who, I’m embarrassed to say, was previously unknown to me. Perhaps, though, I shouldn’t feel too ashamed because, as Norbert Meyn tells us in his excellent and perceptive booklet essay, Robert Kahn pursued a very successful musical career in Germany until the Nazis came to power, but all that success came to an end once Hitler’s regime was installed. Kahn was dismissed from the Akademie der Künste in Berlin in 1934 because he was Jewish. Thankfully, after wisely keeping a very low profile, Kahn was able to emigrate to Britain in 1939 where he lived in obscurity – but safety – and he continued to compose, mainly short piano pieces, for the rest of his life. Sadly, as Meyn says, he and his music have been almost completely forgotten. Norbert Meyn, a singer himself, has done a lot of research into the music of Kahn – and other composers who were obliged to flee the Nazis – under the auspices of the Royal College of Music. At the end of this review, I will include a link to an online article by Meyn about Kahn and his music; this will help readers get better acquainted with the man and his music.

No fewer than nineteen of the twenty-seven songs which Florian Störtz sings on this CD are by Kahn. Norbert Meyn tells us that this album represents the first substantial recording of Kahn’s songs by a baritone; that’s significant because the composer particularly favoured that voice when writing songs. I won’t beat about the bush: all the songs included here are of very high quality. Kahn’s idiom was quite conservative – though none the worse for that – but it seems to me that these nineteen songs are, without exception, well written for the voice, with expressive, attractive melodic lines which suit and enhance the poetry that Kahn chose to set. Furthermore, the harmonic language is most appealing and the piano writing is consistently interesting. If these songs are typical of Kahn’s output, then his neglect is completely unjustified; I regard them as significant discoveries. The songs were all composed between about 1890 and 1918; after 1918, Kahn wrote no more songs, Meyn says, concentrating on other types of composition. 

I’ll discuss the Kahn songs in a moment but it’s worth noting how intelligently all the songs have been ordered on this programme. One example of this is that Florian Störtz opens with a well-known song by Schumann. It’s shrewd to let us hear ‘Stille Tränen’ first, partly because in this familiar song we can experience all the virtues of Störtz’s singing: a voice that is firm, evenly produced throughout its compass, and excellently focussed. In addition, Störtz serves notice of clear tone and admirable diction. He gives us an expressive account of a wonderful song. I wrote in my notes the word ‘presence’; that’s how Störtz’s singing comes across to me, both in this song and elsewhere. The performance also establishes that he has an excellent musical rapport with Aleksandra Myslek, who is clearly a most accomplished pianist and a very supportive accompanist. But the shrewdness of opening with Schumann becomes apparent in another way – though only with hindsight. Once we’ve heard a few of the Robert Kahn songs, we can look back, as it were, and reflect that Kahn’s Lieder are fully in the lineage of earlier masters such as Schumann.

All the Kahn songs impressed me but one stands out very strongly, I think. This is ‘Nänie’, which dates from 1905. This is a setting of the elegiac poem by Schiller  which I know through Brahms’ wonderful setting for chorus and orchestra (Op 82), composed in 1881. Norbert Meyn describes Kahn’s setting as “profound”, a description I only read after I’d heard the song for the first time; I completely agree. Kahn’s response to Schiller’s text is a big, serious song. I think it’s a very fine setting; I admire it greatly. Florian Störtz gives an excellent, eloquent account of it; the concluding section, from ‘Aber sie seigt aus dem Meer’, is especially impressive. Störtz and Myslek make this performance the peak of their recital. 

Earlier in the programme, I liked the way Störtz approaches ‘Es war der Tag der weissen Chrysanthemen’, lightening his voice for this delicate setting. Equally admirable is the eagerness with which he and Myslek bring to life ‘Das Glück’. ‘Der Liebe Macht’ is an entertaining song; the poem, by Goethe, is a young man’s lively “reproach” to Cupid, who has led him into love. Here, both singer and pianist characterise the music to excellent effect.  ‘Auf ein schlummerndes Kind’ is a tender song. I think these artists put it across in an ideal fashion; the singing is velvet-smooth and the pianism is nicely poised.

I mentioned earlier the thoughtful way in which this programme has been devised. An example comes in the second group of Kahn songs. I’ve already discussed ‘Nänie’. That’s a powerful utterance, so the decision to follow it with ‘Herbstgefühl’ makes a lot of sense. As the title indicates, the poem is autumnal; so is Kahn’s music, but the composer displays a winning lightness of touch which means that the song provides excellent contrast with the seriousness of the preceding item. ‘Sehnsucht’ is most effectively set. The poem, by Paul Heyse (1830-1914), is all about longing and Kahn’s gently melancholic music is beguiling.

I’ll discuss later Hindemith’s settings of Whitman but it’s relevant to mention that the last of the three songs is very dramatic. In another thoughtful piece of programme planning, Störtz and Myslek follow this with Kahn’s ‘Allein…’. This song takes the emotional temperature right down. For the most part, Kahn’s setting of the poem by Emmi Destinn is withdrawn and introspective, which makes the song a good foil to the Hindemith. That said, the song rises to a despairing cry of ‘Allein’ before falling back to a quiet, resigned repetition of the word. In the last group of Kahn songs, we hear ‘Über den Bergen’, which is a restful setting; here, the music conveys a fine sense of space. Kahn’s final contribution to the programme is ‘Abendwolken’. This is a spacious, rapt setting in which I especially admired the great delicacy with which Aleksandra Myslek delivers the piano part.      

The other songs on this album are discerningly chosen to contextualise Kahn’s output. In addition to ‘Stille Tränen’, there are two other Schumann songs, both expertly performed. All three Schumann songs emphasise, I think, how firmly Kahn’s songs are rooted in the classic nineteenth-century Lieder tradition. Hindemith is represented by his set of three songs to words by Walt Whitman. Hindemith earns his place in this programme, as does Korngold, because they, like Kahn, were obliged to flee the Nazis. The Hindemith songs date from 1919. I’d not heard them before, though I am familiar with Hindemith’s much later Whitman-inspired work, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d (1946). That substantial work for soloists, chorus and orchestra sets Whitman in the original English – unsurprisingly, since Hindemith was by then resident in the USA. However, the Drei Hymnen von Walt Whitman are settings of Whitman’s poetry in German translations by Johannes Schlaf (1862-1941). I must admit it was a rather strange experience to hear the best-known of the three poems, ‘Beat! beat! drums! In German when I’m so used to hearing the English texts in Vaughan Williams’ cantata Dona nobis pacem. Hindemith’s setting is successful, I think. The music is tense and dramatic, conveying the frenzy of the words. The song here receives a compelling performance. I’m far less taken with the first song, the English title of which is ‘Ages and ages, returning at intervals’. I’m afraid that for me this is an example of Whitman’s too-often overwrought imagery (though I know others will respond more positively). The music is turbulent and it’s powerfully projected by Störtz and Myslek but I fear this song did little for me. The English title of the middle song is ‘Sing on there in the swamp!’ This is a strange, slow song; the music is spare and the setting is very inward-looking. I felt that by comparison with the first of these three songs, the central song offered a prime case of ‘less is more’.

Two songs by Korngold complete the programme. ‘Mond, so gehst du wieder auf’ is a slow, rapt and sorrowful nocturne. The music is very uneasy, ranging widely through different keys. For the most part the tone is subdued, though there’s a brief impassioned outburst during the second stanza of the poem which Korngold chose to set. The recital closes with his ‘Unvergänglichkeit’ (Imperishable). This is a beautiful song which here receives a sensitive performance; I loved the silkiness of Störtz’s vocal delivery.

This is a revelatory album. The songs of Robert Kahn represent a major discovery for me. As I said earlier, his idiom is essentially conservative but the songs which we can hear on this disc are all very fine indeed and if you admire the nineteenth-century German Lied then you should definitely hear them. They are superbly performed by Florian Störtz and Aleksandra Myslek, who are equally distinguished in the other items. After listening to this disc, I’m very keen to hear more of Kahn’s music and I’m just as eager to experience these two very fine artists again; I hope Delphian will record them in the future.

For their debut recital album, Störtz and Myslek have chosen an ideal label. Engineer/producer Paul Baxter has recorded them most skilfully and sympathetically. The artists also benefit from the presentation of the album, which is excellent, as Delphian releases invariably are; Norbert Meyn’s booklet essay is an ideal blend of biography and musical commentary. Separately, you can read his online article about Robert Kahn here.   

John Quinn

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Contents
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Stille Tränen – Gedichte von Justinus Kerner, Op.35, No.10 (1840)
Robert Kahn (1865-1951)
Es war der Tag der weissen Chrysanthemen, Op.61 No 10 (1914)
Das Glück, Op.65, No.5 (1918)
Am Schlehdorn, Op 57, No 1 (1912)
Der Liebe Macht, Op 55, No 4 (1911)
Scheuche doch mit deinem Pfeile – Liebesfrühling, Op 34, No 8 (1901)
Seliges Vergessen, Op22/2, No 2 (1895)
Auf ein schlummerndes Kind, Op 22/2, No 3 (1895)
Wie doch so still, Op 9, No 3 (ca 1890)
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957)
Mond, so gehst du wieder auf – Abschiedslieder, Op.14, No.3 (1920-21)
Robert Kahn
Nänie, Op 44, No 1 (1905)
Herbstgefühl, Op 16, No 3 (1892)
Sehnsucht, Op 42, No 4 (1904)
Roman, Op 52, No 2 (1905)
O weht nicht, ihr Stürme, Op 57, No 2 (1912)
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)
Drei Hymnen von Walt Whitman, Op 14 (1919)
Robert Kahn
Allein… Op 52, No 5 (1905)
Robert Schumann
Mein Wagen rollet langsam, Op 142, No 4 (1840)
Robert Kahn
Nachtlied, Op 42, No 8 (1904)
Die leuchtenden Tage – Gesange aus ernster Zeit, Op.63, No.3 (1915)
Robert Schumann
In der Fremde – Liederkreis, Op.39, No.1 (1840)
Robert Kahn
Über den Bergen, Op 57, No 7 (1912)
Wo wird einst, Op 61, No 6 (1914)
Abendwolken, Op 57, No 5 (1912)
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Unvergänglichkeit, Op.27, No.5 (1933)