Born: November 30, 1796 - Löbejün, Germany
Died: April 20, 1869 - Kiel, Germ

Johann Carl Gottfried Löwe (usually written Loewe in English), was a German composer, baritone singer and conductor. In his lifetime, his songs were well enough known for some to call him the "Schubert of North Germany", and Hugo Wolf came to admire his work. He is lesser known today, but a number of his 400 or so songs are still occasionally performed.

We are featring his setting of Goethe's Erl King (via You Tube) which we find not only to be very fine in its own right but is also important to those familiar with the very famous Franz Schubert version of the same text.  We hope to also have again the Fischer Dieskau (as here) video of the Schubert.  Note that the date of birth of Loewe was just a few months before that of Schubert but that he lived more than twice as long.  All of this is why we but him in this Schubert album.