Most of Busoni’s 40 or so songs were composed during his childhood and adolescence, up to 1885, when he became disillusioned with the traditional concept of the art song and its reliance on the beauty of the voice per sé. Atmospheric, sentimental and well-crafted, and with challenging piano parts, the early songs belong in spirit to the late romantic tradition of Hugo Wolf and Othmar Schoeck. After an interval of thirty years, Busoni returned to the genre with his ground-breaking Goethe-Lieder, declamatory songs which are notable for their sparse textures, motoric rhythms and piano accompaniment closely interwoven with the voice. Six of the songs on this disc are heard in world première recordings.