Hugo Wolf’s most poignant songs were inspired by poet-priest Eduard Mörike, whose lifelong struggle with the moral turmoil caused by an early love affair appealed to similar traumas in Wolf. Baritone Dietrich Henschel performs Wolf’s Mörike songs with Philippe Herreweghe conducting the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, but he also stars in a film (directed by Clara Pons, included on DVD) which dramatizes the content of the songs, exploring the thin line between erotic and mystic love, but ultimately depicting a tormented soul’s quest for redemption and release.
