Robert Schumann
"Es grünet ein Nussbaum vor dem Haus"
Wds. Mosen
Piano : George Reeves
Rec. 1930
According to Allmusic
"Robert Schumann's "Der Nussbaum" (The Nut Tree) comes from the song cycle he gave to his bride on their wedding day, named after the traditional bridal finery, Myrthens (Myrtles). Schumann wrote this song in 1840 and it marked a radical turning point in his career, as shortly after this piece was composed, he seized upon the poetic word with a passion, producing more than half his solo songs that year. It is one of four flower-like songs contained in the cycle; others include "Die Lotusblume," "Du bist wie eine Blume," and "Aus den östlichen Rosen." "Der Nussbaum" is a diaphanous setting of one of Mosen's poems, in which a meditative melody is shared between the piano and voice. The text tenderly tells of the whispers and caresses shared by two nut tree blossoms, revealing a certain maiden's dreams of a bridegroom; nearby a girl listens, drifting gently into reverie. "
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"The presentation of a song demands something, which can never be attained by study, however long and conscientious, unless a natural gift is there. It is the gift of delivery or exposition, the gift of creating anew, by its union with music, the vision inherent in the poetry of the words: to bring it, as nearly as that is possible, visually as well as audibly before the hearer's sense. It would be idle to ask me any code of rules to that end; I do not believe that any such rules exist. My view is rather that the masterworks of song embody within themselves some secret powers; it is to the heart of these that we must seek to penetrate if we are to grasp their full significance."
"If our view of Schumann as a truly lyrical composer needs confirmation, we find it in his choice of texts for the majority of his songs, and especially for the best of them; they are almost all taken from the out-and-out romantics... It is such purely lyrical songs which reveal Schumann's gifts at their best, and win for him his place among the greatest composers of German song. "
Elisabeth Schumann, German Song.
