Liederkreis (Heine) Op.24

After a long time spent writing only for piano, Schumann produced a true outburst of lieder, inspired by the poetry of Heinrich Heine: “What a blessing it is, to write for the voice!” Schumann wrote to his beloved Clara. It is as though a knot was untied while he was writing the Heine-Liederkreis, Op.24. Retrospectively, Schumann wrote that this new poetic spirit had inspired the composition of lieder to such an extent that it had become the only genre to make significant progress since the time of Beethoven.

Indeed these nine songs, which represent the only complete setting of the underlying Heine cycle, came so close to the spirit of the poet that a new epoch of liedcomposition was founded. This new edition of Schumann’s first collection of lieder is based primarily on the first publication under consideration of the autograph manuscript.