PERFORMERS:
Alice Coote (mezzo-soprano)
Piano: Christian Blackshaw
PROGRAMME:
Robert Schumann
The romance Widmung, Du bist wie eine Blume from the song cycle Myrthen, Op. 25
The romance Dem roten Röslein gleicht mein Lieb, Op. 27 No. 2
The romance Die Lotosblume from the song cycle Myrthen, Op. 25
The romance Meine Rose from Sechs Gedichte von Nikolaus Lenau, Op. 90
The romance Mein schöner Stern from Liebesfrühling, Ор. 101
The song cycle Frauenliebe und-leben, Op. 42
The song cycle Dichterliebe, Op. 48
Leben, Liebe, Lieder... Life, love and song... Of the composers who were the heirs to Franz Schubert, the creator of Austro-German romantic lieder, without doubt Robert Schumann stood head and shoulders above the rest. In his compositions written when young, Schumann was still completely under the influence of Schubert’s ballades and songs by Beethoven and von Weber. In his mature years he turned to song, already fully armed with the experience and skill of a composer of numerous works for piano in which a songful essence is triumphant – in both the broad expanse of the melody and in its intonations that come from the words, “speaking out”.
When Schumann felt that his inspiration was limited by the structure of the piano keyboard he turned to song. In February 1840 Schumann wrote to his fiancée Clara Wieck: “Since yesterday morning I have written about twenty-seven pages of music (something new) ... while composing I laughed and cried from joy.” What was “new” here was the song cycle Myrthen: Schumann was preparing to present it as a wedding gift.
In every biography of Schumann, 1840 is referred to as the “year of song”. Within a very short period of time the composer wrote some one hundred and fifty songs and vocal cycles including Myrthen, Liederkreis, Frauenliebe und Leben and Dichterliebe... From the very beginning, Schumann displayed an extremely demanding attitude and true taste for poetry. “Why take average poetry?” he wrote, “There can be nothing more beautiful than weaving a musical garland around the head of a true poet...” And Schumann wove garlands of songs to verse by Goethe, Byron, Moore, Burns, Heine, Chamisso and Eichendorff... His desire for artistically justified inner drama of the whole brings Schumann’s song cycles close to his cycles of piano music.
Schumann emerged as an innovator, confirming that “the voice alone cannot ... do everything, or convey everything” and that “trivial figures of accompaniment” should be dropped. And in his vocal works he uses the piano as an equal partner in the ensemble: his songs are true duets for voice and piano. In instrumental preludes the piano prepares the audience and readies us for the singer’s introductory phrases, while in the “playful” postludes it is as if he expresses that which has remained unsaid. And in this Schumann heralded the conquest of musical drama – from Wagner to maestri of the 20th century.
Iosif Raiskin