In the reception of German poetry outside Germany, three names seem to stand out: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller and Heinrich Heine. So it is no surprise that nineteen-year-old Otakar Ostrčil turned to these poets when composing his only German songs: Heidenröslein (Rose on the Heath) and Gefunden (Found), both by Goethe, Amalia by Schiller, and Die Nacht ist feucht und stürmisch (The Night is wet and stormy) by Heine, all composed in 1898. These four songs have now been published by Academus edition, edited by the Ostrčil specialist Markéta Kratochvílová as Písně na texty německých básníků (Songs to German Poems) for high voice and piano, accompanied by an extensive introduction. The German lyrics have been edited by Radek Malý, renowned Czech author, poet, translator and lecturer. Both the foreword and critical report are available in Czech and English (translated by Mark Newkirk). Kratochvílová, who works at the Musicological Library of the Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, is a specialist in Czech and European music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and in editions of musical scores. In 2011, she was awarded her PhD for her study of Ostrčil, The Work of Otakar Ostrčil: A Thematic Catalogue, Source Criticism, Reception, from the Philosophical Faculty, Palacký University in Olomouc. Like her PhD, the edition under review ventures to meet an important academic desideratum: the four German songs are Ostrčil's only songs which have not yet appeared in print. Thus, with Kratochvílová's edition, Ostrčil's complete songs are now accessible to performers and scholars.

Although Ostrčil's settings of German poems are small in number, German poetry and art was an important influence for him, as Kratochvílová explains in the introduction. In 1897, Ostrčil enrolled in German and Czech studies at Charles University in Prague. At the end of 1895 he began to take private lessons with the composer Zdeněk Fibich, who himself chose German poetry for his early songs – Heine being his main source of inspiration. The intense study of German songs under Fibich is reflected in Ostrčil's own settings, as is illustrated by the reminiscence at the beginning of his Heidenröslein of Schubert's setting of the same text. Both his university studies and his lessons with Fibich had a considerable influence on Ostrčil's artistic approach to German texts. Thus, although the edition at hand is a slim compendium containing only four songs, it provides enlightening information on a small but significant and influential part of Ostrčil's art.

The introduction is full of original research and observations about the songs and the respective poems. Kratochvílová convincingly explains Ostrčil's relationship with German poetry. However, it seems daring to name Schiller among the “romantic poets” (p. xii). Calling him a “classical poet” might have been more accurate. Also, Kratochvílová's argument that Ostrčil's choice of poems “was in fact traditional” (p. xii) may fall short. Unlike those of Goethe and Heine, Schiller's poems were not necessarily a natural choice for composers: their complex structure rendered a strophic composition impossible. Also, they were believed to contain too much reflection and description. So while scholars widely agree that Schiller is one of the most influential German poets, his influence on the art song is a much more complex question, marked by conflicting aesthetic ideas. In the early nineteenth century, a small number of composers such as Franz Schubert, Johann Friedrich Reichardt and Carl Friedrich Zelter set a great number of Schiller's poems to music. Yet he is absent in the works of famous composers from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as Hugo Wolf, Othmar Schoeck, Max Reger, Gustav Mahler and Alexander Zemlinsky. While this is undoubtedly a specific German discourse, it would still have been interesting to learn more about the reception of Schiller in the Czech musical world, in order to better understand Ostrčil's choice of text. The ambivalent reception of Schiller's poetry is also mirrored in Ostrčil's setting of Amalia, a through-composed song with a contrasting ending, reminiscent of Fibich's ballads Op. 7. Amalia is drawn from Schiller's drama Die Räuber. In the drama, it is sung by the female lead, Amalia, as a lament for her lover, whom she believes to be dead. The poem was published separately as well and revised about 30 years later. Unlike the two poems by Goethe, which had been set to music many times in the past, Amalia had only attracted four composers before Ostrčil: one “A. Lade”, the two famous figures of German song Franz Schubert and Johann Friedrich Reichardt, and the Czech composer Wenzel Tomaschek. Like Ostrčil, they based their settings on the revised version of the poem. It is likely that Ostrčil knew at least Schubert's and Tomaschek's composition. In the same way, Heine's Die Nacht ist feucht und stürmisch was by no means an obvious choice as it had only been set by one other composer (Johann Vesque von Püttlingen).

Die Nacht ist feucht und stürmisch stands out in other aspects as well: it is the only German song for which Ostrčil himself provided a Czech translation. Kratochvílová reads this as evidence that “this is the song that the composer seems to have held in the highest regard” (p. xii). It is a beguiling composition, indeed, playing on monothematic images and dynamic changes.

The introduction also provides information about the reception of Ostrčil's early songs and the activities of the Otakar Ostrčil Society. The Critical Report includes comments on the edition of the German and Czech texts of Die Nacht ist feucht und stürmisch, this last part being written in cooperation with Radek Malý. The notation is clear and easy to read. Malý's edition of the German text is logical and has been done with the utmost care. It would have been a nice service to performers to provide Czech and English translations for the first three songs as well – especially given that an experienced Czech translator, Radek Malý, was already at hand. A bonus is the beautiful facsimile of the autograph manuscript of Die Nacht ist feucht und stürmisch. In conclusion, the edition is enriching for both scholars and performers and will no doubt add to the picture of Ostrčil as a composer of songs.