… the more one listens to this music the more clear it seems that the intimate alchemy binding these words and music together is potentiated by nothing less than love - however one chooses to understand that word. Irrespective of further biographical considerations, and on musical grounds alone, this symbiotic relationship places the Franz-Osterwald collaboration as one of the most fascinating in the history of the German lied and, until now, one of the most underestimated. - Graham Johnson. Robert Franz composed fifty-one varied and contrasting settings of love poems written by his close friend, Karl Wilhelm Osterwald, collected here for the first time in a new edition. The songs hint at the deep passion of 1837-1846, noted by Liszt. The themes of shame, secrecy, and self-sacrifice, make these bold, lyrical songs unique in the genre of 19th century German lieder. This illustrated volume also contains a fascinating body of new research, translations, discography and appendix of associated works.