Classical Music | Tenor

Robert Schumann

Frühlingsnacht, from Liederkreis, Op. 39  Play

Steven Ebel Tenor
Daniel Schlosberg Piano

Recorded on 10/27/2011, uploaded on 10/27/2011

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Robert Schumann composed two song cycles with the title Liederkreis, both in 1840, the year of his marriage to Clara and known as his magnificently prolific “Year of Song.” The first cycle was a collection of poems by Heinrich Heine composed near the beginning of the year and published as Schumann’s opus 24. The second, however, was crafted from selections from Josesh Eichendorff’s Intermezzo and published as his opus 39. Unlike Schumann’s other song cycles, opus 39 does not possess the usual musical connections between its constituents that one would normally expect to find. On the other hand, it does put on display Schumann’s growing talent as a composer of song. He, himself, described them as his “most Romantic music ever.” Within the songs, the piano is elevated to a position of equal importance with the voice, creating and amplifying through musical tones the Romantic world of Eichendorff’s poetry.

Closing the cycle is Frühlingsnacht (“Spring Night”). Eichendorff’s text is full passionate yearning and expectancy. The poet stands beneath the night sky beholding the burgeoning vitality of Spring. Enraptured with new love, he hears the reaffirmations of the moon, the stars, and the nightingales: “Sie ist diene!” (“She is yours!”). Ingeniously, Schumann captures the simultaneous joyousness, anxiety and thrill of love in Eichendorff’s text with an accompaniment of rushing triplets that appear in all but the final two measures. The vocal melody is sweet and lyrical, full of passion and joy. Indeed, the brief length of this song seems hardly capable of containing its wealth of emotions. In keeping with the growing intensity of Eichendorff’s text, Schumann delays the song’s only perfect cadence until the poet’s ecstatic declaration.        Joseph DuBose


Steans Music Institute

The Steans Music Institute is the Ravinia Festival's professional studies program for young musicians.