The ups and downs of disappointed love: who could fail to sympathize with the feelings that Schumann immortalized in his song cycle Dichterliebeafter Heine? The pieces range from hopeful anticipation (Im wunderschí_n en Monat Mai) to solitary grief (Und wí_ssten's die Blumen, die kleinen) and bitter sarcasm (Die alten bí_sen Lieder). Schumann knew what he was writing about: the cycle originated in the year of his marriage to Clara Wieck, an event that took place only after years of struggle. Originallythe sixteen-piece cycle was meant to include twenty lieder. Our volume reproduces the four discarded numbers in an appendix.
