Programme — from Fünf Lieder Op.40 (1840), Märzveilchen, Muttertraum …

Vor meiner Wiege D.927 (1827-28)

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

from Fünf Lieder Op.40 (1840)

Märzveilchen

Muttertraum

Der Soldat

Der Spielmann

Schumann’s Fünf Lieder Op.40 consists of four progressively grim songs to words by Hans Christian Andersen followed by a cheerful little Chamisso setting which, from a strictly aesthetic point of view, seems oddly out of place. One reason for its presence is that Schumann might not have discovered the Andersen poems without Chamisso, whose German translations he came across in the volume that contains the words of Frauenliebe und -leben. Anyway, on this occasion the Chamisso song (Verratene Liebe) will be omitted and the four Andersen Lieder will be preceded by Schubert’s Vor meiner Wiege - a song which, with its closing premonition of death, makes a not inappropriate introduction to Schumann’s Op.40.

The first of the Andersen settings, Märzveilchen, is a happy inspiration with just a hint of a warning in the last line. The atmosphere changes with the minor harmonies and the cool piano counterpoint to the voice in Muttertraum, which associates motherhood and death much as foreshadowed in Schubert’s Vor meiner Wiege. After echoing Bach in Muttertraum, the piano anticipates Mahler in the grotesquely coloured march-time accompaniment to Der Soldat. While the situation of a soldier who has to execute his best friend seems tragic enough, for Schumann nothing could be worse than the predicament of the fiddler in Der Spielmann who plays deranged waltz music at his loved one’s wedding and is driven to pray for protection from madness. No wonder Schumann turned to Chamisso for light relief in Verratene Liebe.