Caroline Flinker Osman

Few if any composers equalled Schumann in the breadth of his literary taste. His reading encompassed the major figures of European literature in German translation, as Die Weinende, a setting of Byron in his Jugendlieder collection, amply illustrates. The three sets of Lieder und Gesänge in this volume are among his most expressive, the earliest dating from his magical ‘year of song’ of 1840. They take as their subject matter a panoply of romantic concerns: love of nature, the changing of the seasons, parting from one’s beloved, the allure of mermaids, as well as more cheerful strophic songs. This is the final volume in this acclaimed series.

Nonesuch Records releases Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award–winning composer Caroline Shaw’s Evergreen, featuring Shaw and Attacca Quartet, on September 23, 2022. Evergreen is five original works by Shaw: three pieces written for string quartet—Three Essays, Blueprint, and The Evergreen—and two songs written for string quartet and voice. It also includes an interpretation of a twelfth century French poem, which the Quartet performs with Shaw on vocals.

Some of Schumanns early songs, such as Lied für xxx, show the influence of Schubert, but it was in 1840, his Year of Song, that Schumann fully turned his attention to vocal music. The Zweistimmige Lieder, Op. 43 were the first that he composed after his marriage to Clara Wieck, and many of the songs from this time set texts on the subject of love. Schumanns literary background and cultivated tastes mean that any such collection of his songs reads like a catalogue of the greatest poets of his time, with the tragic narratives of Mörike and Heine in the Romanzen und Balladen, Op. 64 as powerful as any opera.