Henry Love - Hilde Loewe
With the album Henry Love – Hilde Loewe, soprano Romana Amerling presents for the first time a comprehensive portrait of the work of the Viennese composer, pianist and chanson writer Hilde Loewe (1895–1976), revealing its full artistic scope and significance. Publishing under the male pseudonym Henry Love, Loewe created a remarkable body of chansons during the 1920s and 1930s that uniquely combines Viennese musical culture, literary sophistication and popular entertainment.
The project originated in Romana Amerling’s visit to the Wien Museum in 2025, which sparked an intensive search through archives and libraries. Numerous handwritten scores, sketches and fragments were discovered — many of them previously unpublished. The rediscovery of these works led to the desire not only to document Henry Love’s music historically, but to make it audibly present once again.
Hilde Loewe studied piano at the Vienna Academy of Music from 1909 and graduated with distinction in 1914. She performed as a soloist, song accompanist and chanson composer, moving confidently between the classical concert world, literary cabaret and musical salons. Close artistic collaborations connected her, among others, with Burgtheater actor Raoul Aslan, with whom she appeared several times at the Vienna Musikverein. Her chansons are often based on popular dances of the period — foxtrot, tango, Boston waltz or samba — combining these forms with subtle humour, melancholy and refined textual sensitivity. Lyrics were written by authors such as Fritz Löhner-Beda, Alfred Steinberg-Frank and Richard Spelling, as well as by Loewe herself.
Until now, Loewe’s legacy has been primarily associated with The Old Song, first published in 1927 and later recorded by Richard Tauber, Marlene Dietrich, Rudolf Schock and Freddy Quinn, and quoted by Anton Karas in the film The Third Man. However, the majority of Henry Love’s — and Hilde Loewe’s — work fell into obscurity as a result of emigration and the ruptures of the twentieth century. As a Jewish artist, she was forced into exile from 1934 onward and subsequently lived in Great Britain, where she continued to give concerts into the 1970s.
This recording brings together a representative selection of her chansons for the first time. Soprano Romana Amerling and pianist Nobuo Watanabe approach the repertoire from a historically informed perspective. Watanabe reconstructed and completed numerous works on the basis of the surviving manuscripts. Depending on the character of each piece, the songs are performed with piano alone or in chamber arrangements featuring clarinet, double bass and drums. The ensemble is completed by outstanding musicians from Vienna’s classical and jazz scenes.
Romana Amerling vocals
Daniel Ottensamer clarinet
Nobuo Watanabe piano
Herbert Mayr bass
Sebastian Baumgartner drums
More about Romana Amerling - www.romana-amerling.com
NEW ALBUM
Romana Amerling - Hilde Loewe
Release Date 20.02.2026
This album presents for the first time a comprehensive portrait of the work of the Viennese composer, pianist and chanson writer Hilde Loewe (1895–1976), revealing its full artistic scope and significance. Soprano Romana Amerling and pianist Nobuo Watanabe approach the repertoire from a historically informed perspective.
The album is conceived as a musical rediscovery and as a contribution to the reassessment of an extraordinary artistic personality. It reveals a body of music that oscillates between entertainment and art, lightness and depth — and that resonates with striking relevance today.
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