Continue the journey… Life and death are intertwined, love and dismay never far apart
We suggest further works to explore a!er Schumann’s Dichterliebe
Any exploration of the Romantic song cycle has to take in the first great examples of the genre, by Schubert. His Winterreise is a chillier affair than offered by the blossoming spring of Dichterliebe, so head instead to Die schöne Müllerin. Wilhelm Müller’s 20 poems inspired a folk-like simplicity from Schubert that belies the cycle’s emotional complexity (Jonas Kaufmann, Decca 478 1528). Dichterliebe wasn’t
Schumann’s first foray into setting Heine. In February 1840, he brought together nine of the poet’s texts as the Liederkreis Op. 24. In this wonderful short cycle, Schumann traces his protagonist’s passion in all its hope and despair. It shares many qualities with Dichterliebe: the sense of ecstasy, fragility and possibility. Life and death are intertwined, love and dismay never far apart (Ian Bostridge; Warner 556 5752).
Schumann’s year of song was also the year of his marriage to Clara. She was a constant inspiration for his work, her name often hidden in musical code. And although she was best known as a pre-eminent concert pianist, she was also a composer. She wrote three songs for Christmas for Robert, which
in 1841 found their way into a collection pairing songs by both of them, Zwölf Gedichte aus Friedrich Rückerts ‘Liebesfrühling’ (Roderick Williams et al; Stone Records ST8064).
The other important song cycle to emerge from Schumann’s year of song was Frauenliebe und -Leben. If you find its decidedly unfeminist Adelbert von Chamisso text outdated, it’s worth heading to the 2011 response by Cheryl Franceshoad. One Life Stand
features poems by crime writer Sophie Hannah, and traces a journey from first love to bereavement (Jennifer Johnston; Champs Hill CHRCD057).
Krenek’s Reisebuch aus den Österreichischen Alpen of 1929 brings the German Romantic song cycle into the 20th century. It is Schubert who echoes loudest in the 24 songs here, as if his language were viewed through a modernist kaleidoscope.
But this Alpine journey draws in the whole German song tradition as it moves through the decades up to the advent of atonality. And its themes of loss, nostalgia and a search for home would, of course, be no strangers to Schumann himself (Florian Boesch; Hyperion CDA 68158).