Schumann’s extraordinarily sensitive love song

Schumann's Dichterliebe has some of the loveliest songs in the repertoire and is a wonderful cycle to ease someone into the sensitive world of lieder and its gripping emotional narratives. The first one is rather famous for the gentle but melancholic piano opening which actually turns out to be a direct quote from the second movement of Clara Schumann's Piano concerto. The rocking between the iv and V of F# minor seems to lull the listener with its harmonic ambiguity and only when the voice comes in do we get an unexpected resolution in A major instead. Even at the end, Schumann chooses not to resolve the V chord, almost as if leaving us with a doubt or question. Recording(Fritz Wunderlich):    • Dichterliebe Complete   Fritz Wunderlich  ...