Julius Drake, the pianist on this recording, specializes in chamber and vocal music and has partnered with many leading artists.
Critical Reception
The undisguised sensuality of Brahms's Op. 57 Lieder caused strong opposition among his friends, who deemed them unsuitable for performance in a family setting.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Johannes Brahms chose the poems for his Op. 57 songs for their explicit sensuality, noting that a purely spiritual view of humanity is false.
Compositional Technique
Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben is his only true song cycle, beginning and ending with the same melody to express the symbolic eternity of love.
Performer Biography
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, the mezzo-soprano on this recording, began her career as a freelance violist in Boston before taking up vocal studies at age twenty-six.
Composer Biography
Robert Schumann composed 138 songs in 1840, an 'annus mirabilis' during which his marriage to Clara Wieck was approaching after years of litigation.
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