Whether actual or imagined, good or bad, our childhood memories are a world of their own that shapes our personality. They show us how multifaceted our lives are – like a collage that, over time, gradually fills with new colors, lights, and shadows. Relatively inconspicuous and straightforward incidents become special events through the magic of childlike perception. They show us what matters.But the fragments of our memories are not just misty souvenirs of the past. They reflect the environment and the time in which they were created. They are parts of the puzzle of human history, not only with their most beautiful but also gloomiest sides.

Numerous poets and composers have dealt with the task to set childhood memories into lyrics and music. On their debut CD, soprano Anna Graf and pianist Han-Lin Yun – active as a duo since 2018 – perform a selection of such songs. The first part contains examples from the 19th century, among them a full recording of the cycle “Nursery” by Modest Mussorgski. The songs selected for the second part of this CD are by 20th-century ostracized composers and a female composer, also featuring a full recording of a cycle: Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Jewish Songs op. 13. It is Anna Graf’s and Han-Lin Yun‘s desire to honor the work of these composers with this CD and not to consign their names to oblivion. The booklet features some very personal childhood memories of the artists and contains new research results regarding the authorship of Ammenlied D 122 which in the past had been attributed to Franz Schubert.