Hugo Wolf set a total of 53 songs by Eduard Mörike, all in the year 1888. The composer wrote in a letter: "Once you have heard this song, it can only inspire one wish – to die."

In the artistic-metaphysical milieu of the late 19th century this was regarded as the highest ideal, especially for Hugo Wolf, who believed in the body as a “wretched piano case” from which the soul can only break free like harmonies dying away. And yet "Fußreise" (Journey on Foot) begins as a simple, happy, elated so...