Robert Schumann „Liederkreis” and „Dichterliebe”

In addition to poems by Wilhelm Müller, set to music by Schubert, and those from the collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn, set to music by Mahler, we expand our nineteenth century horizons towards Joseph von Eichendorf’s melancholy, his layered fairytale world, and the painfully emotional verse of Heinrich Heine, full of irony, both masterfully set to music by Robert Schumann and now provided with further tonal colours in the arrangement by Eduard Wesly.

In our programme, the two song cycles are joined instrumentally by Schumann‘s short and charming Four Fugues Opus 72, a curious work in the composer‘s oeuvre, inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach. We will also play the Intermezzo Op. 116 No. 6 by Johannes Brahms, with whom Schumann felt connected as a friend and patron.

None of the notes or harmonies of the original have been changed in any of the arrangements we play.