This month's clip is the third in the CCM's series of selections from EMI's "ICON" collection. This month we visit the wonderful Hermann Prey, a baritone who, along with the magnificent Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (who has appeared on these pages many numerous times) dominated the baritone world for a large portion of the twentieth century. A singer blessed both with a long career and an unusually wide repertoire (everything from opera to lieder to folksongs to American musicals), he was particularly noted for his warm, emotionally-charged performances, even if this led to the occasional technically-wanting rendition.

As the Fischer-Dieskau recording linked above gives his account of the great Schubert masterpiece, "Erlkönig," I thought I'd share Prey's rendition of a much less-known "Erlkönig," that of Carl Loewe. Starting off like a Mendelssohn Lied ohne Worte, morphing into something reminiscent of Mahler's "Ich hab' ein glühend Messer," (though, of course, not indebted to it; Loewe died when Mahler was around nine years old), the song is quite effective, and in spots even echoes Schubert's harmonic motions.