Discovering Music - Schumann: Dichterliebe

Stephen Johnson is joined, at Manchester Grammar School, by the Swedish baritone HÃ¥kan Vramsmo and pianist David Quigley for an exploration of Schumann's intensely Romantic song-cycle "Dichterliebe". Composed in 1840, "The Poet's Love" is arguably Schumann's best-known song-cycle. The texts for the 16 songs are taken from Heinrich Heine's "Lyrisches Intermezzo", which he wrote between 1822 and 1823. The very natural, almost hyper-sensitive poetical affections of the poems are beautifully mirrored in Schumann's settings, with their miniaturist chromaticism and suspensions. The poet's love is a hothouse of nuanced responses to the delicate language of flowers, dreams and fairy-tales.