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<< -- 3 -- Robert Anderson LOVE AND LEARNING
Schumann emerges best. Few things in his output are more endearing than the
songs of the Dichterliebe cycle. Not long after his September marriage to
Clara, he could total a hundred songs for 1840. In early November he was still at
it, and Clara could only wonder: 'Robert is busily composing lieder and always
freshly; where indeed do they come from?'
The Partridges are here at their most inspired, warmly lyrical and tender, as
for instance in 'Ich will meine Seele tauchen'
[listen -- 5 86181 2 CD2 track 5, 0:00-1:08].
Recorded a year on from the Schubert, this CD is more consistently apt.
The liner notes to the Partridge cycles end with a tribute to the late
Eric Sams, who lavished love and learning on the elucidation of songs recorded
here, and many more. EMI has simply quoted in his memory four Eichendorff lines
from 'Mondnacht', chosen by Schumann as one of the poems for the Op 39
Liederkreis. Last of the song's three stanzas, it is suitable comment on
the achievement of a dedicated scholar. A translation might run, 'And my soul
spread wide its wings, flew over quiet lands, as if it was flying home.'
'Mondnacht' was recorded when Eric's wit and wisdom were vibrantly alive, but
this performance can fittingly remember him
[listen -- 5 86181 2 CD2 track 21, 2:30-4:03].
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