Sampson/Middleton - Album f�r die Frau: scenes from the Schumanns' Lieder

For the first four years of their marriage, Robert and Clara Schumann kept a joint diary, a project which Robert described as �a record of our wishes and our hopes, and the means whereby we may convey to one another any requests we may have to make, for which words may not suffice...� In the imaginative recital Album f�r die Frau, Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton combine songs by both composers into something similar � the depiction of a relationship seen through the eyes of both parties. Using the eight songs from Robert�s song cycle Frauenliebe und �leben to poems by Adalbert von Chamisso as the framework, they add songs as well as some piano solos in order to create a fuller and more complex picture. The result seems to suggest that the experiences of our �Frau� are richer than Chamisso and Robert Schumann imagined: while love, marriage and motherhood dominated much of Clara Schumann�s life, Robert�s death in 1856 signalled the start of a four-decade widowhood during which she resumed her stellar career as a pianist. As a team, Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton have released a number of acclaimed discs, including �Fleurs�, featuring flower-themed songs by composers from Purcell to Richard Strauss and Britten, �A Verlaine Songbook�, exploring settings of the poetry of Paul Verlaine, and �A Soprano�s Schubertiade�, a Schubert anthology.