Search - Bernarda Fink, Anthony Spiri :: Schumann: Lieder

'I would like to sing myself to death like a nightingale,' wrote Schumann in 1840, revealing a sudden passion for the lied, a genre he had hitherto disdained. His deeply romantic song cycles disclose in the piano part what the words do not express, to the point where he completely dissolves the traditional forms of versification. Written in 1852, Die Gedichte der Konigin Maria Stuart, songs set to poems attributed to Mary, Queen of Scots, stands out for its austerity and exceptional concentration of resources. It was the last song cycle Schumann composed and it epitomized the fateful gloom that was a hallmark of his declining years. Most of the poetry set in these cycles was a fabrication, pure and simple, born of sentimental imagination. In treating these texts, Schumann must have hoped to capture the large contemporary audience attracted to such tales.