DICHTERLIEBE RELOADED

In the art song canon, Robert Schumann’s “Dichterliebe” (A Poet’s Love) stands out as a masterpiece. Nonetheless, by making adirect comparison between the original – interpreted here by lyric tenor Markus Miesenberger and pianist Rainer Nova – and their reworking, CrossNova, in partnership with singer Heidemaria Oberthür, succeed in creating fresh perspectives and new possibilities in the contemporary Lied form. These take the focus away from seeking to recreate the original sound or resolving difficult questions of interpretation, and move it towards a treatment of historic material which is unrestrained by questions of contemporaneity.

“The process here is almost hermeneutic — like decoding a long-dead language and making it understandable” wrote the critic Michael Wruss. He also observed that in this treatment “slow-tempo Lieder gain the drive and impetus of a well-crafted soul ballad”, and that “several ironic Lieder sound even more biting”.