You know the pressure that comes with having to find the perfect gift for someone special? The more important the occasion, the harder it is to find just the right present.
Now, what if the present is for someone you are about to marry, a person you have known for a dozen years and been formally engaged to for three years?. A person whose father is so opposed to your marriage that the two of you have had to sue in order to allow the wedding to proceed? That’s the situation Robert and Clara Schumann were in when they finally managed to tie the knot on September 12, 1840.
What was Robert going to give his bride as a wedding gift? As a composer, he had been channelling into a flood of songs all of his anxiety about not knowing whether the marriage would happen, his anticipation of their long-deferred union, and his joy at finally beginning a life with his adored Clara. 1840 is always known as “the year of song” in Schumann’s life because in it he wrote hundreds of songs, including the unforgettable cycles Dichterliebe (A Poet's Love) and Frauenliebe und -leben (A Woman's Life and Love).
And ... he wrote this cycle -- Myrthen (Myrtles) – to be his wedding gift for Clara. The myrtle is a symbol of marriage in Germany and other European countries. In the songs, Robert celebrates their love in a variety of guises -- in portraits of expectant brides and despairing minstrels, with glances at the carefree bachelorhood he is bidding farewell to and the tribulations he and she are now safely past.
Schumann was notoriously fond of ciphers and cryptic messages (in fact, one of the songs here is a riddle, the solution to which is the letter 'H'), and a number of commentators have pointed out that the 26 poems of the cycle are a kind of alphabet of their love and courtship, from the dreaming bride in the third poem (C -- for Clara), to the pair of poems that come fifth and sixth (letters E and F), which seem to depict two sides of Schumann's personality that he personified with names: Eusebius (the dreamy introvert) and Florestan (the more outgoing fun-lover). From the opening song, in which the beloved is addressed as the alpha of the poet's existence, to the final one, in which the composer sets a poem that explicitly refers to a wreath of lyrics as a gift, Schumann offers Clara a priceless myrtle wreath in music, with songs that we still treasure today.
This recording is one to treasure as well, helmed by a pair of outstanding singers; the clear-voiced soprano Camilla Tilling, and Christian Gerhaher, who has inherited the mantle of “greatest living German baritone singer of Lieder” from Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. They bring Schumann’s encyclopaedia of love to life in ravishing and sensitive performances, deftly partnered by Gerold Huber at the piano.
How lucky Clara was to receive such a priceless wedding gift from Robert, and how lucky we are, to be able to enjoy them again close to 200 years later in such polished and vibrant performances!
