Decker: Liebesblätter, A Cycle of Solo Songs and Duets for Two High Voices

Pauline Decker, née von Schätzel (1811-1882) was a celebrated German opera singer who published twenty-seven Lieder in the latter years of her life, most of them individually, but whose songs have been unexplored. Decker came from a prominent musical family; she was the granddaughter of famed soprano Margarethe Luise Schick and the daughter of soprano Juliane von Schätzel. Trained in part by her mother, she began performing in concerts in 1827, at the age of sixteen, and made her operatic debut the following year at the Königliche Oper in Berlin as Agathe in Der Freischütz. Over the next four years, she became one of the company's leading sopranos, singing more than sixty roles. In 1832, however, her stage career ended abruptly when she married Rudolf von Decker, a royal court publisher -- yet she remained active in Berlin's musical life, especially through performances with the Berliner Singakademie. She also participated regularly in the musical events that Fanny Hensel hosted on Sundays in her Berlin home and, starting in 1833, did performances in her own home, even including full operas.

Pauline Decker

Liebesblätter

A Cycle of Solo Songs and Duets for Two High Voices

Compiled and Edited by Stephen Rodgers

ClarNan Editions C146