Release Date: 02 January 2005
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313207527
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: SCHUMANN, R.
Description
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)Liederkreis, Op. 24 Dichterliebe, Op. 48 Der arme Peter, Op. 53, No. 3 Belsazar, Op. 57When the eighteen-year-old Robert Schumann hadcompleted his studies at the Zwickau Lyceum, he set out,before his planned university law course, on a greatjourney to South Germany. A letter of introduction securedfor him a meeting with the already famous Heinrich Heine,who was then staying in Munich. Schumann had alreadycome to know Heine's Buch der Lieder, published the yearbefore, and had drawn his own conclusion from the poemson the character of the poet: 'I imagined', Schumann'sreport of the meeting goes, 'in Heine a sullen, misanthropicman, who stood above men and life, rather than associateclosely with them. But I found him completely different ...he met me in a friendly way, like a human, GreekAnacreon, he pressed my hand ...; only on his mouth wasthere a bitter, ironic smile ...'.At this period it was not yet apparent that Schumannwould be counted one day among the ideal composers ofsettings of Heine's poems, poems that completely suit thecadences of folk-song, yet interrupted by disillusioningchanges of mood. In the foreground in Heine's poems areoften unhappy love affairs, but behind this long-familiarmotif lies more: modern world-weariness, and suffering atthe short-comings of contemporary society.While he was at school Schumann had written someromantic songs, but in the 1830s he only published pianopieces, although he felt the form to be increasinglyrestrictive. It may be that above all his love for ClaraWieck and the prospect of his coming marriage removedthis creative block towards the end of the decade:'...singing and playing makes me almost dead now; Icould die in it. Ah, Clara, what a happy thing it is to writesongs; I have missed it for a long time', Schumann writesin a letter of 22nd February 1840 to his fiancee. The resultof inspiration was enormous: in Schumann's proverbialYear of Song, 1840, he wrote almost 140 settings in a realburst of creativity, more than half of the total number of hissongs.An important source of inspiration for Schumann wasHeine's Buch der Lieder, from which over a quarter of thesongs written that year were taken. From the outsetSchumann created song cycles: the nine songs of theLiederkreis, Op. 24, consisting of nine poems, form agroup in the Buch der Lieder. Later editions have omittedsome songs from the cycle and ignored the fact thatSchumann had written a sequence of songs in arch form,each song related to another, and starting and finishing inthe ninth song Mit Myrten und Rosen (With myrtle androses) in the key of D major. Furthermore the range ofexpression extends from the inner ecstasy of Ich wandelteunter Baumen (I wandered among the trees) to thedramatic excitement of Warte, warte, wilder Schiffmann(Wait, wait, savage boatman) and the epigrammaticbrevity of Anfangs wollt ich fast verzagen (At first I wouldalmost despair), which is built on simple chord sequencesin the bass.Still
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Yaqi Yang; Margarita Parsamyan; Robynne Redmon; Minghao Liu; Frank Ragsdale; Kim Josephson; Kevin S
Vilmos Csikos; Olivier Lechardeur; Manon Lamaison
Tomas Cotik; Martingale Ensemble; Ken Selden
