Der Rose Pilgerfahrt

Christiane Oelze, soprano; Birgit Remmert, alto; Werner Güra, ténor; Hanno Müller-Brachmann, basse; Philip Mayers, pianoforte Streicher; RIAS-Kammerchor, dir. Marcus Creed

Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Der Rose Pilgerfahrt op.112 / The Pilgrimage of the Rose. Oratorio pour solistes, chœur et piano d'après un poème de Moritz Horn

Considered by W. Siegmund-Schultze as "formally the most perfect of Schumann's choral compositions", The Pilgrimage of the Rose was composed in 1851, a few months after the composer had received a manuscript from the poet Moritz Horn with a subject he found fascinating. The fairy tale, deeply impregnated by the spirit of the Biedermeier period, tells the story of a little rose that aspires to the human condition-and thus, to love. In a few weeks, Schumann composed this huge fresco for chorus, soloists and piano, orchestrating it in 1851-52 with the aim of reaching a larger audience. But it is undoubtedly in its original form that the work is the most pertinent, because it is entirely in the glorious tradition of the Romantic Lied.