Juliane Banse, Graham Johnson - Schumann: The Complete Songs, Vol. 3 - Juliane Banse

The third issue in our series of �The Songs of Robert Schumann� introduces the outstanding young German/Swiss soprano Julianne Banse to the Hyperion label in a programme of songs both familiar and unfamiliar, not to say extremely rare. At the hear of the disc is �Frauenliebe und leben� recorded for the first time with Chamisso�s final poem (unset by Schumann), spoken by Miss Banse to complete the story: �Traum der eignen Tage� (Dream of my own days that now are distant). The most extraordinary songs on the disc are the cycle of Seven Songs to the words of Elisabeth Kulmann, a gifted girl who died at the age of seventeen, who Schumann admired enough to write this �song biography� of her, with his own words (recorded here) introducing each song. As usual the CD comes with Graham Johnson�s fascinating and exhaustive notes (over 40,000 words) with which collectors of our Schubert Edition are now well familiar.