Lied was Hans Sommer's most natural form of expression. His imaginatively harmonised piano parts exude emotion making his music comparable with that of his contemporary and friend Richard Strauss. Sommer's affinity with the stage can be heard in Die junge Konigin in which the singer inhabits several characters, while the unpublished songs reveal a composer whose invention was consistently strong. Sommer's gifts are at their best in settings of poetry by Goethe, from the blissful Mailied to the lively indulgence in life's pleasures in Frech und froh. Several of these settings were published with orchestral accompaniment but are heard here in the composer's original versions with piano.
