This edition contains the original piano version, as well as a piano reduction of the version for baritone and Ensemble. The subtitle of this work dedicated to Christian Gerhaher, '23 sentences by Nikolaus Lenau', should be taken literally: some of the texts in Heinz Holliger’s setting consist of only a few words. With relentless focus on essential elements, the texts are a distillation of the sensation which has been recorded in literary history as 'world-weariness'. Holliger reflects this conc...

• I Wirf, o Thor
• II Die Jahre flogen
• III Die Himmelsschlange
• IV Ich will
• V Weit
• VI Dein Blick
• VII Transsubstantiatio
• VIII Der Mensch
• IX Ich habe
• X Serenum
• XI Der Eisenhammer
• XII Ein Tropfen
• XIII Verächtlich
• XIV Man grüsst
• XV Der Schwimmer
• XVI Mein Widerhall
• XVII Der Frühling
• XVIII Der schwarze Schleier
• XIX Der Zweifel
• XX Der Himmel
• XXI Der Mond
• XXII Die Wüstenwanderer
• XXIII Einklang (Nachwort)