I'm drawn to songs about the sea. Mainly because the sea is an essential part of my landscape. While many people find their greatest pleasure in the mountains (a modern version of waldeinsamkeit) you're far more likely to find me contemplating the sea. Fortunately, close to home. And when I travel, always seeking out other seas wherever I can.

Greek mythology, as we’ve mentioned more than once, is full of horrifying stories. The best-known ones belong to the Olympian period of the gods led by Zeus, but there was an earlier age, that of the Titans, and a war between the two factions.

A few days ago I was talking with some friends about how ill-timed some encores can be at a lieder recital. And while it is true that some encores can ruin the magic of a concert, it is also true that others become the cherry on top: pieces that round off the programme and that you remember for a long time, or that even create a new need in you.

Last week we talked about Antonín Dvořák's Cigánské Melodie, focusing on the author of the poems, Adolf Hayduk, and this week we'll listen to another song after talking about the tenor who commissioned them, Gustav Walter.

About a year and a half ago I wrote an introduction to Antonín Dvořák's Cigánské Melodie (or Zigeunerlieder, or Gypsy Songs). That introduction was necessarily brief, as it was for an article published in August about the Schubertiade concerts, and I thought I could spend this week and next talking a little more about the cycle and listening to two more songs from it.