Schumann: Frauenliebe und Leben – Tragödie – Liederkreis (2005)

1. Frauenliebe Und Leben, Op. 42
2. Tragodie, Op. 64 No. 3
3. Liederkreis, Op. 24
4. 3 Heine-Lieder - Abends Am Strand, Op. 45 No. 3
5. 3 Heine-Lieder - Lehn Deine Wang' An Meine Wang', Op. 142 No. 2
6. 3 Heine-Lieder - Mein Wagen Rollet Langsam, Op. 142 No. 4

Brigitte Fassbaender  - mezzo-soprano
Irwin Gage – piano

Frauenliebe und -leben, ( German: “Woman’s Love and Life”) song cycle by Robert Schumann, written in 1840, with text by the French-born German poet Adelbert von Chamisso. The text of the songs is written from a woman’s perspective.

Schumann wrote more than 130 musical settings of poems in 1840, the year in which he married Clara Wieck. He set several of Chamisso’s poems to music, both original works (such as Frauenliebe und -leben) and translations of Hans Christian Andersen. Frauenliebe und -leben includes eight songs, all of them written for the female voice with piano accompaniment. They present an evolving perspective on love and life. The first song reveals a young woman in the first flush of love. As the songs progress, she gives her whole heart and revels in the feelings of mature love. The last song is one of grief and pain, reflecting on the death of the beloved. --- britannica.com

The only Heine text that Robert Schumann set that was not from the Buch der Lieder was the fateful, romantic trilogy of Tragödie (Tragedy), Op. 64/3, from Taschenbuch für Damen. In the first song, the third verse, the protagonist's invitation to his lover to elope is nearly an identical repetition of the first verse, and both evoke the national anthem at mention of the "Vaterland" (fatherland). The middle section, like the other two, uses syncopation to propel the vocal line, which in this section is given the work's first few crescendos to stress the intensity of the protagonist's emotions. In the postlude, nine bold measures, still in the original key of E major, follow the singer's last phrase; the change to the key of E minor in the second song is intentionally abrupt.

Without hesitation the composition proceeds to the setting of the devastatingly dramatic second poem, which both artists believed to be the most important of the three. It tells of how the couple unfortunately perished after they fled together. The piano, which appears minimally, opens with a few falling pianissimo chords and stays at that dynamic level until the postlude. After two soft verses, the singer immediately quiets to match the pianissimo of the accompaniment, then provides the heartbreaking conclusion. The last five chords of the three-bar postlude gradually disappear.

Initially Schumann intended to arrange the last portion of the trilogy for chorus, possibly to create a heavenly atmosphere around the planting of a tree on the maiden's grave, but the setting ultimately became a duo. Whereas the mezzo-soprano line is a mere duplication of the upper notes of the piano part, the tenor part melodically adds the much to the song.

The three-part work is found in Romanzen und Balladen, Vol. IV, Op. 64, and its first two songs are usually performed together without the last. Around 1841 Schumann attempted to orchestrate the trilogy, but never completed the project. The three-part poem was set to a more sarcastic tone for quartet by Mendelssohn; he combined it with three other partsongs in 1834, creating Op. 41. --- Meredith Gailey, Rovi

Schumann was such a quick and prolific composer that it's often difficult to draw distinct points of development in his style, but Schumann himself described these songs as "my most Romantic music ever." The Eichendorff texts are (with the exception of "Intermezzo," in which the location is not specified) all set outdoors, often with direct references to nature, and each refers to travel, whether thoughts traveling to a beloved or a physical journey, both typical Romantic concepts. They are also highly Romantic in their expressive moodiness, whether ecstatic or melancholy, and the occasional aura of mystery, whether the unexplained tears of the bride in "Auf einer Burg" or the supernatural in "Waldesgesprach." Schumann's selection of these varied poems itself creates a Romantic juxtaposition of emotions, and the passionate settings capture and emphasize those aspects.

They also show Schumann's increasing sophistication as a song composer; the piano becomes more important in its own right, and the scene painting from the piano is among Schumann's best, creating the desired effects immediately and with no excess. (The exception is the relentlessly jolly "Der frohe Wandersmann," which originally opened the cycle and which Schumann left out of the 1850 and subsequent editions.) For example, "Waldesgesprach" uses an alluring lyrical figure that quickly paints the seductive, wild figure of the Lorelei, a recitative-like dialog between the protagonists, and a hunting theme that first depicts the man as the hunter and the woman as the object of his hunt, and repeats at the end, ironically, to show the reversal of roles by the end of the song. There are quick characterizations, such as the sudden surge at "du schöne Braut" suggesting an eager lunge towards the lady, and the almost smugly seductive decrescendo on the honeyed "heim."

The cycle is atypical of Schumann in the relative lack of musical linkages between and among the songs. There is no piano postlude reprising a theme from the first song, as there is in "Frauenliebe und -leben" or "Dichterliebe," and while there are tonal connections between songs, most notably between "Auf einer Burg" and the following "In der Fremde" (which also share similar imagery), they are less closely constructed than the connections in other song cycles.

Schumann often integrated references to his and Clara's love in his songs and his instrumental and orchestral writing. In the second song, "Intermezzo," he includes the famous "Clara theme," a descending five-note pattern that in German notation spells out her name. Numerous elements of the cycle reflect events of Schumann's own life -- from blissful love to the wedding procession that fills the listener with sorrow in "Im Walde," paranoia in "Zwielicht," and finally the various images of death. ---Anne Feney, Rovi

download: uploaded yandex 4shared mediafire solidfiles mega zalivalka filecloudio anonfiles oboom

back