The Choir - Robert Schumann

In a special programme as part of Radio 3's Schumann 200 season, Aled Jones is joined by Simon Halsey, conductor of the Berlin Radio Choir, and singer and song specialist Norbert Meyn. Schumann, the arch Romantic, went the way of the choral scene relatively late in his life. In Dresden and Dusseldorf he conducted male-voice and mixed choirs and composed sprightly works for them to perform in the concert hall, even out of doors beneath the stars! Served up with these are some glorious moments from Schumann's oratorio style works for choir and orchestra, including 'Paradise and the Peri'; 'Scenes from Goethe's Faust' and his Requiem. The programme includes a specially recorded performance of Schumann's Four Songs for mixed chorus Op. 59 performed by the BBC Singers, and conducted by Stephen Cleobury.