The composer Peter Gast (1854–1918) – real name Heinrich Köselitz – is best remembered as a friend and posthumous editor of Friedrich Nietzsche, rather than for his own music, which was kept under lock and key in communist East Germany for half a century. Only recently has it begun to be performed and recorded. ‘Il faut méditerraniser la musique,’ Nietzsche argued, and Gast’s Lieder, in a reaction against Wagnerian gloom, do just that, singing of love, life, springtime, drinking, and youthful ardour. Even the more wistful songs have a spring in their step.