James Gilchrist - Schumann: Song Cycles - Sinfini Music

'Three of Schumann’s best known song-cycles are on this disc. Two of them – the Liederkreis (the word means literally ‘song-circle’), Op.24, and Dichterliebe (‘Poet’s Love’) – are set to words by the composer’s contemporary, the German poet Heinrich Heine, whose texts proved ideal for musical purposes and were widely set in the Romantic period. The remaining cycle, another Liederkreis, Op.39, employs poems by the slightly earlier Joseph Eichendorff.

Astonishingly, all three of these cycles were composed in 1840, known in Schumann’s biography as ‘the year of song’. It was also the year when he was finally able to marry his beloved Clara Wieck.

All three cycles are much-recorded masterpieces, but these new versions are appealing and often distinctive, though one might ideally prefer a slightly richer and more substantial voice in this repertoire than James Gilchrist’s grainy tenor. He is nevertheless an intelligent and observant interpreter of both words and notes, even if one or two individual songs feel on the slow side. Anna Tilbrook’s pianism is more consistently rewarding, not only in her varied tone but in her fluent and consistently spirited musicianship.'