Schumann - Leider

The Guardian 80

Goerne/Hinterhäuser
(Harmonia Mundi)

“Einsamkeit” – loneliness – is the title of baritone Matthias Goerne’s Schumann recital, and there is a pervasive sense of sombre introspection about all the songs he has chosen. The selection ranges right across Schumann’s output, from the 26 settings of Myrthen, Op 25, onwards, but the most substantial sequences that frame it are taken from sets composed in 1850, near the end of Schumann’s creative life. Six of the strikingly dark Sechs Gedichte und Requiem Op 90, based on poems by Nikolaus Lenau, open the disc, while the rather unconvincing songs of Op 89, settings of far less distinguished verse by one Wilfried von der Neun, balance them.

With the possible exception of the three Heine songs taken from Myrthen, nothing here is especially well known. But the combination of Goerne’s distinctively veiled tone and care over every word and nuance with Markus Hinterhäuser’s equally punctilious accompaniments, turns them into a compelling sequence. Even ardent Schumann devotees should find something new here.