Robert Schumann - 12 Gedichte (Kerner-Lieder) [With score] @DamonJHK
Robert Schumann - 12 Gedichte (Kerner-Lieder) [With score]  @DamonJHK
Uploaded March 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Composer: Robert Schumann (8 June 1810 -- 29 July 1856)
Performers: Peter Schreier (Tenor), Norman Shetler (Piano)
Years of recording: 1972/73

Zwölf Gedichte op. 35, Liederreihe nach Kerner, written in 1840

00:03 - I. Lust der Sturmnacht
01:22 - II. Stirb, Lieb' und Freud'!
07:26 - III. Wanderlied
10:30 - IV. Erstes Grün
12:46 - V. Sehnsucht nach der Waldgegend
14:27 - VI. Auf das Trinkglas eines verstorbenen Freundes
18:06 - VII. Wanderung
19:24 - VIII. Stille Liebe
22:18 - IX. Frage
23:37 - X. Stille Tränen
27:47 - XI. Wer machte dich so krank?
29:40 - XII. Alte Laute

Schumann wrote many of his first songs to Kerner's poetry when he was just 17, and in May 1840, his most prolific year, he began to think about writing settings for other Kerner texts, writing this cycle in November and December.

Even though written during a happy time in his life, its dominant emotions are longing and grief rather than contentedness. The fifth song, Sehnsucht nach der Waldgegend, (Longing for the forests) expresses an almost aching yearning with its arching vocal phrases, which rise in longing and fall back dejected and unappeased, and with the quiet resignation of the piano chords as the vocal lines become more earth-bound, murmuring rather than exclaiming. (This song was one of Clara's favorites.) The tenth, Stille Tränen, (Silent weeping) is one of his most passionate expressions, with its outbursts of grief shared between voice and piano. However, in the sixth song, Auf das Trinkglas eines verstorbenen Freundes, (To the drinking glass of a dead friend) the loss is sublimated in mystical thoughts, expressed with a sonority reminiscent of Mozart's Masonic music, and the seventh, Wanderung, is one of his most effectively jubilant pieces, comparable to An meinem Herzen from Frauenliebe und Leben, with an easy melodiousness that shows no signs of forcing, and where there are no hints of impending grief.

In the second song, when the woman prays with the words of the title Sterb, Lieb' und Freund (Die, love and joy), the music uses a refrain from the final chorale from St. John Passion, an allusion to Schumann's attendence at a performance of Bach's work earlier in the year. The first song, Lust der Sturmnacht, (The joy of a stormy night), is noteworthy for the masterful way that it maintains a musical consistency while remaining faithful to the text. It opens with pounding chords from the piano and an equally turbulent vocal line, vividly painting the image of the storm. When the text's mood changes to describe the joy of being indoors with a loved one, the music becomes softer and the key changes suddenly, but the rhythm continues the pounding effect. This way, the effect of the storm is maintained, emphasizing the sense of the poem. However, a similar textual transition in the third song, Wanderlied, is less successfully carried out; the change is as sudden as that in the first song, but here it jars somewhat.

Another point of interest is in the concluding two songs, Wer machte dic so krank? and Alte Laute (Who made you so ill? and Old sounds), in which he uses the exact same melody for two different poems. This presents a challenge to performers, who must provide two different interpretations of the same music, to fit the different texts and moods.
[allmusic.com]
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Damon J.H.K. |

Robert Schumann - 12 Gedichte (Kerner-Lieder) [With score]

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