Schumann: Lied Edition, Vol. 11 Caroline Melzer, Simon Bode, Ulrich Eisenlohr

• Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856): Lieder und Gesänge, Book 2, Op. 51:
• 1 Schumann: Lieder und Gesänge, Book 2, Op. 51: No. 1, Sehnsucht 02:43
• 2 Schumann: Lieder und Gesänge, Book 2, Op. 51: No. 2, Volksliedchen 01:23
• 3 Schumann: Lieder und Gesänge, Book 2, Op. 51: No. 3, Ich wandre nicht 02:11
• 4 Schumann: Lieder und Gesänge, Book 2, Op. 51: No. 4, Auf dem Rhein 02:06
• 5 Schumann: Lieder und Gesänge, Book 2, Op. 51: No. 5, Liebeslied 02:19
• Lieder und Gesänge, Book 3, Op. 77:
• 6 Schumann: Lieder und Gesänge, Book 3, Op. 77: No. 1, Der frohe Wandersmann 02:01
• 7 Schumann: Lieder und Gesänge, Book 3, Op. 77: No. 2, Mein Garten 02:10
• 8 Schumann: Lieder und Gesänge, Book 3, Op. 77: No. 3, Geisternähe 02:08
• 9 Schumann: Lieder und Gesänge, Book 3, Op. 77: No. 4, Stiller Vorwurf 02:05
• 10 Schumann: Lieder und Gesänge, Book 3, Op. 77: No. 5, Aufträge 02:38
• Soldatenlied, WoO 7:
• 11 Schumann: Soldatenlied, WoO 7 00:47
• 3 Gesänge, Op. 83:
• 12 Schumann: 3 Gesänge, Op. 83: No. 1, Resignation 03:32
• 13 Schumann: 3 Gesänge, Op. 83: No. 2, Die Blume der Ergebung 03:18
• 14 Schumann: 3 Gesänge, Op. 83: No. 3, Der Einsiedler 03:41
• 6 Gesänge, Op. 89:
• 15 Schumann: 6 Gesänge, Op. 89: No. 1, Es stürmet am Abendhimmel 01:45
• 16 Schumann: 6 Gesänge, Op. 89: No. 2, Heimliches Verschwinden 02:32
• 17 Schumann: 6 Gesänge, Op. 89: No. 3, Herbstlied 02:37
• 18 Schumann: 6 Gesänge, Op. 89: No. 4, Abschied vom Walde 01:46
• 19 Schumann: 6 Gesänge, Op. 89: No. 5, Ins Freie 02:15
• 20 Schumann: 6 Gesänge, Op. 89: No. 6, Röselein, Röselein! 02:23
• Lieder und Gesänge, Book 4, Op. 96:
• 21 Schumann: Lieder und Gesänge, Book 4, Op. 96: No. 1, Nachtlied 02:34
• 22 Schumann: Lieder und Gesänge, Book 4, Op. 96: No. 2, Schneeglöckchen 03:24
• 23 Schumann: Lieder und Gesänge, Book 4, Op. 96: No. 3, Ihre Stimme 02:00
• 24 Schumann: Lieder und Gesänge, Book 4, Op. 96: No. 4, Gesungen! 01:23
• 25 Schumann: Lieder und Gesänge, Book 4, Op. 96: No. 5, Himmel und Erde 02:05
• 3 Gedichte, Op. 119:
• 26 Schumann: 3 Gedichte, Op. 119: No. 1, Die Hütte 03:05
• 27 Schumann: 3 Gedichte, Op. 119: No. 2, Warnung 02:32
• 28 Schumann: 3 Gedichte, Op. 119: No. 3, Der Bräutigam und die Birke 02:13
• 5 heitere Gesänge, Op. 125:
• 29 Schumann: 5 heitere Gesänge, Op. 125: No. 4, Frühlingslied 02:25
• 30 Schumann: 5 heitere Gesänge, Op. 125: No. 5, Frühlingslust 01:18
• 31 Schumann: 5 heitere Gesänge, Op. 125: No. 1, Die Meerfee 01:22
• 32 Schumann: 5 heitere Gesänge, Op. 125: No. 3, Jung Volkers Lied 01:10
• 33 Schumann: 5 heitere Gesänge, Op. 125: No. 2, Husarenabzug 02:36
• 11 Songs, RSW:Anh:M2 (Excerpts):
• 34 Schumann: 11 Songs, RSW:Anh:M2 (Excerpts): No. 1, Die Weinende 01:35
• 35 Schumann: 11 Songs, RSW:Anh:M2 (Excerpts): No. 5, Sehnsucht 01:20
• 36 Schumann: 11 Songs, RSW:Anh:M2 (Excerpts): No. 10, Erinnerung 01:17
• 37 Schumann: 11 Songs, RSW:Anh:M2 (Excerpts): No. 6, Der Fischer 04:09
• 38 Schumann: 11 Songs, RSW:Anh:M2 (Excerpts): No. 9, Hirtenknabe 01:57
• Total Runtime 01:24:45

Info for Schumann: Lied Edition, Vol. 11

Few if any composers equalled Schumann in the breadth of his literary taste. His reading encompassed the major figures of European literature in German translation, as Die Weinende, a setting of Byron in his Jugendlieder collection, amply illustrates. The three sets of Lieder und Gesänge in this volume are among his most expressive, the earliest dating from his magical ‘year of song’ of 1840. They take as their subject matter a panoply of romantic concerns: love of nature, the changing of the seasons, parting from one’s beloved, the allure of mermaids, as well as more cheerful strophic songs. This is the final volume in this acclaimed series.

As a boy Robert Schumann had received every encouragement in his literary and musical interests from his father. August Schumann had established himself as a bookseller and publisher, and as a prolific writer and translator, in the Saxony town of Zwickau. Robert had taken his first piano lessons when he was seven and in adolescence had shown a propensity for music and literature, an inclination shared by his mother, Johanna Christiane Schumann (née Schnabel), although she at first took a more practical view of her son’s ambitions. August Schumann died in 1826, leaving his family comfortably off but at the same time depriving his son of the paternal guidance that might have been desirable.

Robert continued his education under the supervision of his mother and a Zwickau businessman, Gottlob Rudel. His early schooling completed, he studied law at the University of Leipzig and then at Heidelberg, but he showed no great aptitude for or interest in the subject, while his leaning towards music grew. In Leipzig Schumann met Friedrich Wieck, a noted piano teacher who had developed his own teaching method, and his decision to take lessons with him had a lasting impact on Schumann’s professional and personal life. Wieck’s systematic approach to teaching proved unsatisfactory to Schumann, and meanwhile an injury to his right hand – apparently caused by a contraption of his own devising, referred to in his diaries as a ‘cigar-box machine’ – made any prospect of a career as a concert pianist impossible. In Wieck’s household, however, Schumann found time for other interests. Not only was he developing his gifts as a composer, particularly in music for the piano, but he also found time for a liaison with a certain Christel, followed by a brief engagement with a fellow pupil in Wieck’s establishment, Ernestine von Fricken, apparently the daughter of Baron von Fricken but in fact the illegitimate child of his wife’s sister. The discovery of Ernestine’s parentage brought an end to the relationship and a shift in Schumann’s attentions towards Wieck’s 16-year-old daughter, Clara.

Wieck forbade the relationship between Robert and Clara, but the liaison continued, prompting him to attempt to bring matters to an end by recourse to litigation. In this he failed and in 1840, a year in which Schumann wrote many of his songs, the couple married. For some time, Clara Schumann’s reputation overshadowed that of her husband. The first years of marriage brought more ambitious compositions from Robert and in 1844 the couple, now with a growing family, moved to Dresden. Schumann had made use of his inherited literary proclivities in journalism, notably with his Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (‘New Journal of Music’), a magazine he had established in 1834 and which he now sold. There were money worries and Schumann suffered periods of depression. In 1847 he became director of the Dresden Liedertafel, an amateur male vocal group previously directed by Wagner and then by Ferdinand Hiller, who was leaving for Düsseldorf. Schumann followed this appointment by establishing a larger choir, the Verein für Chorgesang, for which he wrote several works.

Dresden proved in many ways disappointing for the Schumanns. The abundant professional musical activity that had been part of life in Leipzig was lacking, and Schumann’s compositions won only varied success. In 1848 his publisher, Breitkopf und Härtel, complained that Schumann was not proving profitable. The composer responded by writing a series of works for the amateur domestic market, in particular compositions for mixed voices, some 40 compositions in all.

The final years of Schumann’s life are well known. Hiller moved on from Düsseldorf to Cologne and Schumann succeeded him in the former position. The Schumanns were well received in Düsseldorf but gradually difficulties arose, largely through the perceived inadequacy of Schumann as an orchestral conductor, a skill he had had little opportunity to acquire. Matters were made worse by the recurrence of mental health problems Schumann had suffered from intermittently over the years. His attempt at suicide in 1854 led to his admission, as a voluntary patient, to a private asylum at Endenich, near Bonn. He died there two years later. ...

Caroline Melzer, soprano
Simon Bode, tenor
Ulrich Eisenlohr, piano

Caroline Melzer
dazzles with her “clear, broad, and bright soprano“ (Eleonore Büning FAZ) and her unusually wide repertoire, ranging from big lyrical and jugendlich-dramatic roles to Operetta divas and contemporary works written specifically for her. She studied singing with Rudolf Piernay and Vera Scherr and song interpretation with Ulrich Eisenlohr and Irwin Gage.

Her first permanent engagement took the expressive singer to the Komische Oper Berlin in 2007, where she sang numerous roles such as Contessa, Fiordiligi, Mimì, Giulietta (Tales of Hoffmann), Lisa (Queen of Spades), Lisa (The Land of Smiles), Leonore in the first version of Fidelio, and Cordelia in Aribert Reimann's Lear in the highly acclaimed new production by Hans Neuenfels. From 2010 until 2017 she was a permanent ensemble member at the Vienna Volksoper, where she has sung roles such as Rusalka, Marie (The Bartered Bride), Micaela, Liù, Donna Elvira, Sieglinde in Ring in one evening (arrangement by Loriot), and the Merry Widow. In addition to her regular engagements, Caroline Melzer has appeared at the Ruhrtriennale, as First Lady at the Staatsoper Berlin and as Merry Widow at the Savonlinna Festival in Finland and in Tokyo, as well as Cordelia in Lear at the Hungarian State Opera. Last season she appeared again on the stage of the Volksoper as Donna Elvira and as Giulietta in Tales of Hoffmann, and could be heard at the Neue Oper Wien and at the Müpa Budapest as Angel in Péter Eötvös' Angels in America. She started the 2021/22 season with the world premiere of Michael Wertmüller's D • I • E at the Ruhrtriennale; she also returns to the Volksoper Wien as Mariza. Concerts and recitals will take her to Lausanne (Mahler Lieder with Michael Nagy and Cedric Péscia), to the Bozar in Brussels with the Tana Quartet, and to Vienna, where she will give New Year's concerts with the Tonkünstler Orchestra. She will also be a guest in a world premiere by Felix Leuschner at the Theater Kassel.

Contemporary music is a particular focus of her work. Important collaborators include: Aribert Reimann, who wrote for her the cycle Rilke-Fragmente and the piece Der Blick war’s, der mich ins Verderben riss; Manfred Trojahn (Zwetajewa and Nitzsche songs); and Wolfang Rihm, in connection with his Zwetajewa songs. In addition, she has given many other world premieres of works by Emanuele Casale, Seán Doherty, Deidre Gribbin, Stefan Heucke, Bernhard Lang, Jüri Reinvere, Vladimir Tarnopolski, Steffen Schleiermacher, and Kate Whitley. She has also worked with the pianist Axel Bauni, and ensembles such as Ensemble modern, musikFabrik, and Ensemble Intercontemporain. She also passionately devotes herself to the vocal works of György Kurtág: in addition to the Kafka Fragments, which she performs together with the violinist Nurit Stark (the CD of which, released on the BIS label in 2015, has been awarded the German Record Critics' Prize), she has performed many of the composer’s chamber music works with voice.

In the course of her activities as a lied and concert singer, Caroline Melzer has appeared in renowned European halls such as the Philharmonie Berlin, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Musikverein Vienna, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Auditorium Grafenegg, the Kunstzentrum deSingel Antwerpen, the Cité de la Musique Paris, the Kölner Philharmonie, the Tonhalle Zürich, the Philharmonie Essen, the Konzerthaus Dortmund, deDoelen Rotterdam, Tchaikovsky Conservatory Moscow, the Town Hall Birmingham, and the Liederhalle Stuttgart. The complete recording of the Schumann Lieder will be completed on the Naxos label in April 2022, on which she is featured on two CDs. Caroline Melzer has worked with conductors such as Stefan Soltesz, Peter Rundel, Péter Eötvös, Helmuth Rilling, Christoph Poppen, Friedemann Layer, Konrad Junghänel, Patrick Lange, François-Xavier Roth, Alfred Eschwé, Jac van Steen, Frieder Bernius, and Michael Sanderling.

She is a lecturer for singing in Berlin (UdK) and from autumn 2022 at the Zurich University of the Arts.

Simon Bode
is a commanding presence on the opera and recital stages throughout Europe. Born in Hamburg, his recital and concert career has taken this young tenor to prestigious international festivals including Salzburger Festspiele, Beethovenfest Bonn, Heidelberger Frühling, Kissinger Sommer, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein, and Schlossfestspiele Ludwigsburg. Mr. Bode recently sang highly praised debuts at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin and the Rheingau Musik Festival and reappeared with a solo recital at Wigmore Hall London. His regular collaborators are pianists Igor Levit, Graham Johnson and Nicholas Rimmer as well as Bajanist Elsbeth Moser. Whilst a member of the soloist ensemble at Oper Frankfurt and State Opera Hanover, he received several nominations for “Young Singer of the Year” from Opernwelt Magazine. Recent engagements include title roles at the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo, Opéra National de Bordeaux, Théatre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, International Handel Festival Göttingen, Hannover State Opera, Theater Basel, Wiesbaden State Opera and the Bregenz Festival, singing under conductors Kent Nagano, Andrew Manze, Andrea Marcon, Constantinos Carydis, HK Gruber, Peter Eötvös and Sebastian Weigle. Simon has performed regularly with renowned orchestras and ensembles such as Wiener Philharmonikern, dem Ensemble Modern, der NDR Radiophilharmonie, dem Münchner Rundfunkorchester oder „Les Talens Lyriques“. His broad-ranging repertoire spans from Bach’s Passions and the most demanding roles of his fach, to world premieres of contemporary works. He has sung numerous world premieres. Simon Bode is scholar and recipient of numerous prizes and awards, was a former student of Charlotte Lehmann in Hannover and currently studies with Neil Semer in New York.

Booklet for Schumann: Lied Edition, Vol. 11