Schumann: Songs of love and loss (Incls 'Liederkreis, Op. 39' & 'Frauenliebe und-leben, Op. 42')

The British mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly here performs a collection of songs by Robert Schumann in a new album whose theme is 'Songs of Love and Loss'. There are two song cycles from the extremely prolific year of 1840 along with several songs from the composer's last years. In a joint booklet note with her accompanist, Eugene Asti, Sarah Connolly mentions that 'at the heart of Schumann's music lies a profound melancholy and a personal and completely honest, open-hearted empathy for the poetry, which is totally disarming'. Sarah Connolly and Eugene Asti will perform a selection of these songs in concerts in October and November. Sarah Connolly will make her debut at Covent Garden in March 2009.