In
1847 Schumann took over as Director of a male choir in Dresden
at the suggestion of his friend Ferdinand Hiller, who himself
had been preceded in the post by Wagner. The following year
Schumann established a larger - over 100 singers - mixed choir
the Verein fur Chorgesang. It was for this more
ambitious group that he composed the four books of Romanzen
und Balladen in 1849-51. In 1849 he also composed the Romanzen
for women’s voices. Many of the songs in both groups were composed
while the composer and his family were fleeing the revolutionary
events in Saxony of 1848-49, although one would hardly know
it from the music.
As
in his vocal works Schumann’s literary expertise is evident
in his choice of texts. Along with Goethe, the German Romantics
predominate, although Robert Burns shows up three times and
twice with the same poem. In the Op. 67 set, Nos. 4 and 5 stand
out with Ungewitter (Thunderstorm) demonstrating emotional
depth worthy of the larger symphonic works and with a surprising
ending. Jon Anderson is the first Robert Burns poem,
here in its first version. It is almost totally static, but
extremely dramatic, a tour de force that only Schumann could
have brought off. In the second set one must point out No. 3,
Der traurige jager (The Melancholy Hunter), one of the
highlights of the disc. Again the intensity reminds one of much
bigger works and there some interesting harmonic excursions.
No. 5, Vom verwundeten knaben (The Wounded Lad) brings
something fresh to a very old poem.
In
the third set of Romanzen und Balladen, No. 19, Der
Sanger (The Singer) brings an interesting outdoor quality
to accompany the title character’s wanderings. The set ends
with the familiar story of the goose-boy in what surely must
be the most extrovert version ever. Set Four has yet another
Burns setting (Der Bankelsanger Willie) (No. 2) that
is interesting for its light touch of Scottish dialect or Schumann’s
idea of such. The air of regret in Sommerlied (No. 4),
with its drawn-out passages, is typical Schumann, while the
fifth and last of the fourth set, Das Schifflein (The
Little Boat) is reminiscent of the Schubertiads in its combination
of voices and instruments.
It
must be confessed that the two sets of Romanzen, for
women’s voices alone, are not nearly as interesting as the mixed-voice
works. This may be due to fact that each set was written over
a three day period and to the fact that the above-mentioned
Verein fur Chorgesang had been founded precisely
to get Schumann away from such works. There are exceptions.
No. 5 in the first set Meerfey (Sea Fairy) is truly eerie
in the way it produces a feeling of spirits under the
water. The last of the set Die Kapelle (The Chapel) (No.
6) has some of this same intensity. In the second set, the sixth
and last In Meeres Mitten (in the Middle of the Ocean)
must be mentioned for its almost orchestral sound.
Aquarius
is a vocal ensemble founded by composer-conductor Marc Michael
de Smet in 1995 as the Goeyvaerts Consort. They specialize in
modern music, but have also prominently featured Schumann. On
this record they have two great strengths-they have a near perfect
blend of voices and their rhythmic abilities are just what Schumann’s
songs require. Their weakness is that their commitment or attention
can vary from one song to the next. The Presentation Church in
Sint-Niklaas provides a reasonably good acoustic for his type
of music. Another successful Naxos exploration of little-known
Schumann.
William Kreindler
