Marianne Beate Kielland
Frauenliebe und -leben, Op. 42 / Liederkreis, Op. 24 / Maria Stuart Lieder, Op. 135 / Songs from Myrthe
- Type CD
- Label Lawo Classics
- UPC 7090020182193
- Catalog number LWC 1197
- Release date 12 June 2020
About the album
Schumann’s astonishing outpouring of songs in his so-called “Liederjahr” was inspired by his love for Clara, whom he married in September that year after prolonged and acrimonious opposition from her father. Schumann survived the ordeal of court appearances in which Friedrich Wieck attempted to defame his character. Myrthen (Myrtle Wreath), a group of twenty-six songs based on texts by several poets, including Rückert, Goethe, Burns, Byron and Thomas Moore, was published on the day of Schumann’s wedding. It contains many of his most popular songs.
Frauenliebe und -leben, Opus 42 is a sequence of eight songs, a true song-cycle unified by a continuing narrative and recurring musical material. The poems are by Adelbert von Chamisso, who was French-born but grew up in Germany. These verses (previously set in 1836 by Carl Loewe) provided a subject with which Schumann could closely identify – a young woman’s love and life.. From dazzled (“blind”) adoration of her lover, she progresses to marriage, experience of motherhood, and finally bereavement. A sentimental naivety is typical of Chamisso’s earlier work, including Frauenliebe und -leben, and indeed of much German poetry of that time, but Schumann’s sympathetic emotional engagement produces a memorable song-cycle, art of a deeper hue. His music evokes the woman’s fluctuating moods with sensitivity.
Schumann completed his Liederkreis (literally “song-circle”), Opus 24 in a few days during February 1840, setting a sequence of nine poems from Junge Leiden (Youthful Sorrows), the first section of Heine’s Buch der Lieder. Schumann wrote to Clara “while I was composing, my thoughts were only of you.” Here in his first Liederkreis (– a second work of this name, Opus 39, has texts by Eichendorff) and in many other Schumann songs from this period, there are natural parallels with his own fluctuating emotions while courting Clara in spite of her father’s violent opposition. Schumann set Heine’s words more than forty times (most remarkably in his Dichterliebe, Opus 48) but he was inclined to soften the harsh or bitterly ironic tone of some of his poems. Unfortunate in love, Heine took out his frustration and sometimes anguish in his verses, but Schumann was relatively unscarred and his deep affection for Clara prevailed.
The majority of Schumann’s most popular songs (and song-cycles) date from 1840 but his extensive and treasurable work in this genre continued until 1852. At the end of that year he set five poems doubtfully attributed to Mary, Queen of Scots and translated by Gisbert von Vincke – Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart, Opus 135. Written in one of Schumann’s least productive years, they were his last songs. In 1835 Donizetti had composed an opera based on Schiller’s play about Mary Stuart, but otherwise there is very little music inspired by her life and death. Schumann’s musical language had become understated and simpler, qualities which effectively deepen the poignancy of Mary’s circumstances.
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11Myrthen, Op. 25 III. Der Nussbaum
02:43 -
12Frauenliebe und -leben, Op. 42 I. Seit ich ihn gesehen
02:21 -
13Frauenliebe und -leben, Op. 42 II. Er, der Herrlichste von allen
02:59 -
14Frauenliebe und -leben, Op. 42 III. Ich kann's nicht fassen
01:43 -
15Frauenliebe und -leben, Op. 42 IV. Du Ring an meinem Finger
02:27 -
16Frauenliebe und -leben, Op. 42 V. Helft mir, ihr Schwestern
01:50 -
17Frauenliebe und -leben, Op. 42 VI. Süsser Freund, du blickest
04:17 -
18Frauenliebe und -leben, Op. 42 VII. An meinem Herzen
01:20 -
19Frauenliebe und -leben, Op. 42 VIII. Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz getan
03:46 -
110Myrthen, Op. 25 VII. Die Lotosblume
01:23 -
111Liederkreis, Op. 24 I. Morgens steh' ich auf
01:01 -
112Liederkreis, Op. 24 II. Es treibt mich hin
01:11 -
113Liederkreis, Op. 24 III. Ich wandelte unter den Bäumen
03:38 -
114Liederkreis, Op. 24 IV. Lieb' Liebchen
00:49 -
115Liederkreis, Op. 24 V. Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden
04:16 -
116Liederkreis, Op. 24 VI. Warte, warte, wilder Schiffmann
01:49 -
117Liederkreis, Op. 24 VII. Berg' und Burgen schau'n herunter
03:53 -
118Liederkreis, Op. 24 VIII. Anfangs wollt' ich fast verzagen
00:54 -
119Liederkreis, Op. 24 IX. Mit Myrthen und Rosen
04:03 -
120Myrthen, Op. 25 I. Widmung
02:05 -
121Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart, Op. 135 I. Abschied von Frankreich
01:29 -
122Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart, Op. 135 II. Nach der Geburt ihres Sohnes
01:35 -
123Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart, Op. 135 III. An die Königin Elisabeth
01:34 -
124Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart, Op. 135 IV. Abschied von der Welt
02:45 -
125Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart, Op. 135 V. Gebet
01:56 -
126Myrthen, Op. 25 XXIV. Du bist wie eine Blume
01:44