Stille Liebe - Lieder by Robert Schumann review | Andrew Clements's classical album of the week

The Guardian 0

Samuel Hasselhorn/Joseph Middleton
(Harmonia Mundi)
Hasselhorn’s rich, dark baritone captures Schumann’s extraordinary extremes of light and darkness and Middleton is a discerning accompanist

In 1840, Schumann was finally able to marry Clara Wieck, and he celebrated his happiness in his songs, composing at least 138 of them, including his four great cycles, Dichterliebe, Frauenliebe und -leben, and the two Liederkreis. This carefully planned recital disc from the German baritone Samuel Hasselhorn, with Joseph Middleton as his unfailingly perceptive pianist, concentrates however on some of the other products of that extraordinary Liederjahre – settings of Heine, Kerner, Chamisso and Hans Christian Andersen.