Myrthen op. 25, Song Cycle

1840 was Schumann’s famous “year of song” that brought forth over 100 lieder. They included Myrthen op. 25, which he dedicated “to his dear bride”, Clara Wieck-Schumann. Besides famous songs such as “Widmung”, “Lotosblume” and “Nussbaum” to texts by German poets, the collection also saw Schumann venture further afield, whether to the Scottish Highlands with settings of Robert Burns or to Italy for the “Venetian Songs” of Thomas Moore. Schumann specialist Kazuko Ozawa has examined the first edition of 1840 and all the manuscript sources. Among the dedicatory autograph copies she has also discovered interesting early versions of individual songs that are here published in an appendix. Our Urtext edition is rounded off with an extensive history of how Myrthen was composed. This volume is a superlative addition to G. Henle Verlag’s series of Robert Schumann’s song cycles.