Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert - Mark Padmore/Andrew West

Mark Padmore pairs one of Henze's most colourful and exotic creations, "Six Songs from the Arabian", full of witches, monsters and shipwrecks, with Schumann's sensitive settings of Hans Christian Andersen. Märzveilchen Op. 40 No. 1 Muttertraum Op. 40 No. 2 Der Soldat Op. 40 No. 3 Der Spielmann Op. 40 No. 4 The composer presented the writer with a copy of these songs, writing that Andersen may very well find the settings strange. Schumann said that he himself found the texts strange at first, but as he began to understand the poems and their strangeness more deeply, his music became increasingly strange as well.