Recorded in Perugia between 2023
and 2025, a major new set of
Schumann’s song output for mixed
voices: vocal duets, trios and
quartets. By a fine team of Italian
singers, and led by the pianist Filippo
Farinelli.
In recording previous, adventurous
surveys of the songs and chamber
music by Ravel, Berg, Dallapiccola,
Hindemith and others, the pianist
Filippo Farinelli has demonstrated
his deep knowledge of and affinity
for a wide range of chamber music.
As he does here, he has gathered
together a carefully selected cast of
singers in order to present both rarities
and established masterpieces within
the catalogues of these composers,
shedding new light on their evolution
as creative thinkers and musicians.
The solo song output of Robert
Schumann is well established among
the peaks of the rich heritage of
German Lieder. But alongside cycles
such as Dichterliebe and Frauen-liebe
und-leben, Schumann often returned
to the combination of mixed voices,
and these cycles are much less familiar
to most listeners. Many of them
catch the composer at his most genial
and Biedermeier in tone, such as the
female Duets Op.43 and the Mädchen
lieder Op.103.
The Spanisches Liederspiel Op.74 and
the Spanische Liebeslieder Op.138
are strikingly under-rated precursor to
Hugo Wolf’s Spanisches Liederbuch,
in which a group of singers take turns
their individual turns (in solo or duet)
to outline ‘sketches of Spain’ from a
German perspective (and from one who
had never been there), full of charm
and grace.
The Op.79 Liederalbum für die Jugend
likewise reminds us of Schumann’s
genius for song-melody at its most
artless, a vocal counterpart to piano
cycles such as Kinderszenen.
The poet Emanuel Geibel had
adapted many of the ‘Spanish’ texts,
and Schumann’s Op.29 trio of songs
based on texts by Geibel catch the
authentic spirit of the German wanderer.
Here and elsewhere throughout the
set we find Schumann’s affinity for the
world of fantasy and fairy tale.
Lieder collectors will find this new set
an essential acquisition, but anyone
new to Schumann’s song writing will
find much to delight them.