"An die Hoffnung", Op. 124, is a Lied for alto or mezzo-soprano and orchestra by Max Reger, setting a poem by Friedrich Hölderlin. He composed it in Meiningen in 1912 and dedicated it to Anna Erler-Schnaudt, the singer of the first performance. It was published by Edition Peters the same year.
Anna Erler-Schnaudt, the first singer of the orchestral song
Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin was a German poet and philosopher. Described by Norbert von Hellingrath as "the most German of Germans", Hölderlin was a key figure of German Romanticism. Particularly due to his early association with and philosophical influence on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, he was also an important thinker in the development of German Idealism.
Hölderlin by Franz Carl Hiemer, 1792
Friedrich Hölderlin's birthplace, Lauffen am Neckar
Hölderlin attended the Tübinger Stift (pictured) from 1788 to 1793.
The first floor of the yellow tower (now known as the Hölderlinturm) was Hölderlin's place of residence from 1807 until his death in 1843.