Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart is Robert Schumann's last cycle, composed in December 1852. These songs were virtually his last too as he only wrote two more. The story of Mary had already attracted Schiller's attention, who had written his drama based on the Queen’s last days, Maria Stuart, in 1800. It had also attracted Donizetti, who composed in 1835 his opera Maria Stuarda upon Schiller's work, and Schumann paid attention to some [...]

To dedicate the letter R from our Lederabend's alphabet to Romanticism seemed a clear choice, Lied is probably THE Romantic musical genre; I can't think of any other more involved with this period, except, maybe, the impromptus, momentos and other brief piano pieces. So I jotted down "R for Romanticism" in my notebook, without wasting a minute thinking about the contents. And two years later, as the date of this post gets closer and one tries to gather her thoughts (an exercise almost as reassuring as having the post [...]