The Schumann Piano Cycle Almost Nobody Plays Gesänge der Frühe

by Hermione Lai  July 29th, 2026

Are there still works by great composers that are practically unknown? Let’s take Robert Schumann, for example, and I wonder if professional pianists really know every single work he has written for the instrument.

Professionals probably do, but as an amateur pianist, I keep stumbling across pieces I had no idea existed.

To mark the anniversary of Schumann’s death on 29 July 1856, let us listen to one such rarity, the Gesänge der Frühe (Songs of Dawn) Op. 133, the last work Schumann himself prepared for printing.  

The Diotima Enigma

One day before Schumann threw himself into the Rhine River, he wrote to his publisher F.W. Arnold, “I do not wish to publish the Fughetten because of their mostly melancholy character and offer you another, recently completed work, “Gesänge der Frühe”, five characteristic pieces for pianoforte, dedicated to the poet Bettina von Arnim. These are pieces of music that depict the feelings as the morning approaches, but more as an expression of emotion than painting.”

Robert Schumann (1839)

It is probably difficult to know exactly what Schumann was thinking at this stage, but I read that this set was originally dedicated to “Diotima.” So, who was Diotima? She is one of the most intriguing figures in ancient Greek thought, teaching Socrates all about the nature of love.

I’ve had to look it up, but Diotima looked at love as much more than romantic desire. It is the longing for beauty and virtue that gradually elevates us to the pursuit of wisdom. At the highest level, love is eternal and perfect in contemplation of Beauty itself.

Whatever we make of this, her ideas had enormous influence on philosophy and theology, and her teachings in Plato’s Symposium remain highly influential in discussions of love in Western thought.  

Hölderlin’s Diotima

She has also inspired later artists and thinkers. For example, the German poet and novelist Friedrich Hölderlin named the beloved heroine of his novel Hyperion “Diotima,” transforming her into an idealised figure of beauty, love, and spiritual aspiration.

Friedrich Hölderlin (Pastell, 1792)

Schumann, as the son of a book dealer and probably the most widely read of all major composers, probably didn’t think of Plato, but of his favourite German poet and philosopher Friedrich Hölderlin, and specifically his novel Hyperion.

That novel is written as a series of letters from the protagonist Hyperion to his German friend Bellarmin, alongside a few letters between Hyperion and his love Diotima. The story, in brief, unfolds like this.

Hyperion is in love with Diotima, but he considers himself unworthy of her after becoming aware of his own deficiencies and dishonour. When Diotima dies of a broken heart before they can be reunited, Hyperion lives as a hermit in the Greek wilderness. His spiritual affection for Diotima eventually reveals to him the meaning of his own life.  

From Diotima to Bettina

It is clearly a mystery whether Schumann was thinking of Diotima as a symbolic figure or whether he wanted to refer directly to Hölderlin’s poems. In his list of compositions, the “Songs of Dawn” are only referred to as “Diotima,” with the entire work composed between 15 and 18 October 1853, roughly four months before Schumann attempted suicide.

There is another mystery in this, as Schumann dropped the subtitle “An Diotima” and dedicated the work to Bettina von Arnim. She was the widow of Achim von Arnim and the sister of Clemens Brentano, collectors and editors of the hugely influential Des Knaben Wunderhorn.

Bettina von Arnim

She was one of Beethoven’s muses, aroused the curiosity of Napoleon Bonaparte, and went for walks with Karl Marx. She also entertained a significant passion for Goethe, and both Schumann and Brahms dedicated songs to her.

Although she never wrote poetry, her writing outraged and fascinated people. She also composed music, and according to some, she was “a supreme muse, a one-woman literary movement, at once among the singular and most representative figures of the Romantic century.”

She didn’t like Clara Schumann’s performances as a pianist and always turned down Robert when he attempted to solicit contributions for his Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. But we do know that Bettina von Arnim, together with her daughter and Joseph Joachim, visited the Schumanns in Düsseldorf ten days after the “Songs of Dawn” were completed.

Bettina von Arnim also visited Schumann in Endenich in May 1855, having heard that Schumann was unhappy with his treatment at the asylum. Apparently, she later reported that the innovative regime to which Schumann was exposed was thoroughly unsatisfactory.

The Endenich maison de santé

Schumann was still working on the publication of Gesänge der Frühe in Endenich, and after von Arnim’s visit, he wrote to her. “I would be delighted if you, honoured lady, heard the Gesänge der Frühe from my Clara. She will also send you the songs. Would you grant me your favour for a long time to come?”

Clara Schumann, in turn, was deeply puzzled by the work. She wrote in her private diary that they were “quite original pieces again, but difficult to grasp; there is such a very strange mood in them.” She did play the cycle in private, but never included it in her public concert repertoire.

Mystical Fusion

With all this context, it is still difficult to get a handle on this set. Frequently, writers attempt to project Schumann’s mental state onto the music, but all we can say with certainty is that it represents the style characteristic of Schumann’s last creative phase.

Personally, I very much like the idea of pianist Burkard Schliessmann, who released a recording of late Schumann pieces in 2024. Titled “Robert Schumann’s Poetics: Mystical Fusion,” he suggests that Gesänge der Frühe is held together by a subtle network of thematic reminiscences and transformations, with the third piece functioning as the cycle’s expressive centre.

Robert Schumann: Fantasies (Burkard Schliessmann)

Schliessmann finds that the entire set is based on a single core motif, which is introduced in unison at the beginning. Individual movements don’t feature poetic inscriptions, certainly not in their published form. Rather, they feature simple tempo indications. The opening “In a tranquil tempo” opens almost like a chorale, but with plenty of dissonant intervals tossed in.

“Animated, not too quick,” is almost completely contrapuntal and “Lively,” the central and most virtuosic movement of the set, has a constant galloping rhythmic drive. “With motion” features a cascading accompaniment, which renders the music restless and agitated. “First tranquil, then moving in tempo,” returns us to the character and sonority of the first movement.

A Beautiful Mystery

This brings us to a difficult question to which I have no answer. Do we read Gesänge der Frühe in terms of Diotima, Hölderlin’s Hyperion, or in the context of Bettina von Arnim? We must also consider Schumann’s fragile mental state, and what we are left with is probably best summarised by Schliessmann. “The difficult accessibility of this complex work has led many pianists to give this opus a wide berth.”

Like everything Schumann wrote for the piano, Gesänge der Frühe does not readily give up its secrets. It’s this beautiful world of shifting shadows and fleeting glimpses, and I am not really sure it matters whether we know exactly what Schumann intended. To be invited into this most private space may be what matters most.

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Maria João Pires (Born on July 23, 1944) Chopin’s Inner Music

 by Georg Predota  July 23rd, 2026

Born on 23 July 1944 in Lisbon, Portugal, Maria João Pires is one of the most introspective artists of our time. Her playing is a study in poetic refinement that reveals an almost spiritual connection to the music.

Her recordings of Mozart’s piano sonatas balance imagination and spontaneity, while her Schubert interpretations are treasured for their poetic simplicity. If there is one recording, however, that is most closely identified with her artistry, it is surely the 1996 Deutsche Grammophon recording of the complete Chopin Nocturnes.

To celebrate her birthday on 23 July, let us return to this exceptional and award-winning recording, often regarded as one of the finest accounts of Chopin’s Nocturnes ever committed to disc.  

Poetry Before Virtuosity

Distinguishing Chopin’s poetic voice from his virtuosity, Maria João Pires explained that, “Before everything else, Chopin is a poet. It’s very inner music and very deep. I don’t feel at all that it’s for show. Chopin is the deep poet of music. But he also invented this terrible thing called piano recitals. That made me suffer all my life.” (Judd, Poetry of Chopin, 2016)

Maria João Pires

Pires, who has long felt uncomfortable with the performer-centred culture of the concert stage throughout her life, views Chopin’s music as an expression of profound inner emotions and intimate reflection.

Height of Artistic Maturity

Pires signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon in the late 1980s. During the 1990s, DG increasingly presented her as one of its leading pianists, and the Chopin Nocturnes released in 1996 coincided with the height of her artistic maturity.

Maria João Pires, Chopin: The Nocturnes (Deutsche Grammophon)

Her interpretation is immediately recognisable for its vocal lyricism and natural rubato. Critics frequently remarked on her ability to sustain long melodic lines and to create an atmosphere of intimacy.

Beyond the Salon

The album was internationally commended, receiving the Record Academy Prize in Tokyo, the CD Compact Award in Barcelona, and the Grand Prix du Disque in 1997. In addition, it was nominated for a Grammy Award and was overwhelmingly admired by critics.

Maria João Pires

Bryce Morrison in Gramophone writes, “Passion rather than insouciance is Pires’ keynote.
Here is an intensity and drama that scorn all complacent salon or drawing-room expectations.
How she relishes Chopin’s central storms, creating a vivid and spectacular yet unhistrionic contrast with all surrounding serenity or embalmed darkness.” (Morrison, Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010)

Critical Responses

Morrison continues to describe her interpretation as reinforcing a sense of Chopin’s stature and creating a new range of possibilities. “Yet moving ahead, one has no hesitation in declaring Maria João Pires to be among the most eloquent master-musicians of our time.” (Morrison, Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010)

Maria João Pires (photo by Felix Broede / DG)

However, Pires also received extensive criticism from advocates of historically informed performance practice. By not returning to the manuscripts, she takes liberties with the dynamics and distorts phrases through fluctuating tempi.

Beauty Beyond Critique

Pires has also been criticised for mistaking passages which should be played strictly in time for recitative, and for unstylishly over-dramatising the musical text. Despite reservations about her interpretative choices, reviews suggest that Pires’ playing stood above much of the competition within the prevailing traditions of Chopin performance.

Three decades after its release, Pires’ recording remains a work of pianistic beauty. It offers sincerity and poetic insight, and an encounter with what she herself called Chopin’s “very inner music.”

MUSIC IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF MY LIFE

By Klaus Döring

Music is an important part of our life as it is a way of expressing our feelings as well as emotions. No matter where you are living on this globe.  Some people consider music as a way to escape from the pain of life. It gives you relief and allows you to reduce stress. ... Music plays a more important role in our life than just being a source of entertainment.

Music affects our emotions. When we listen to sad songs, we tend to feel a decline in mood. When we listen to happy songs, we feel happier. Upbeat songs with energetic riffs and fast-paced rhythms (such as those we hear at sporting events) tend to make us excited and pumped up. 

Music means the world to me. It makes me think about how it relates to life and I love the beats. Music is a way to express yourself, keep you company while you're alone, and always give you something to do. Music is a way of expressing me and being able to relate to other people.

It won't be a surprise to most that music can affect the human brain emotionally. ... Happy, upbeat music causes our brains to produce chemicals like dopamine and serotonin, which evokes feelings of joy, whereas calming music relaxes the mind and the body.

Music is a form of art; an expression of emotions through harmonic frequencies. ... Most music includes people singing with their voices or playing musical instruments, such as the piano, guitar, drums or violin. The word music comes from the Greek word (mousike), which means "(art) of the Muses.

Music is love. David Crosby sang this wonderful song already in 1971. "Everybody's sayin' music is love .

Music tells stories. Well, composers and musicians use music to tell stories. From all over the world.  Music can be used to depict characters, places, actions and even emotions. Music is often used to heighten a mood, or to express a thought or feeling when mere words are not enough.

“[Music] can propel narrative swiftly forward, or slow it down. It often lifts mere dialogue into the realm of poetry. It is the communicating link between the screen and the audience, reaching out and enveloping all into one single experience.” The best stories engage all of the senses.

One of the great things about music in general, and in particular concert music, is that playing it opens up a whole new world of experience that further enhances the mind, physical coordination, and expression. Music lovers, who are also amateur performers, may choose to play in community ensembles (orchestra, band, choir), take lessons, perform with others, compose, and nearly anything else a professional musician may do, while maintaining their regular lives. All of this involves intense physical coordination in performing an instrument alone or with others, while reading musical notation, and adding delicate or strong nuanced changes to the music that only a performer can bring. In general, to an amateur musician, music can provide an escape from everyday life or an alternative means of expressing one's own capabilities. It is an important part of their lives and fills a need or an urge to create music.

I have been a music lover since my 4th birthday. Meanwhile, living as a German expat in the Philippines, I found out that Filipinos and Germans are music lovers. Among indigenous Filipinos, one important function of music is to celebrate or commemorate important events in the human life cycle. Fortunately, until today, these rich indigenous musical traditions live on. They serve as a reminder of the Filipinos' long history of musical talent and ingenuity.

Such is the case of Philippine music which today is regarded as a unique blending of two great musical traditions – the East and the West. ... The majority of Philippine Music revolves around cultural influences from the West, due primarily to the Spanish and American rule for over three centuries.

Becoming a German expatriate in the Philippines in 1999, I have attended many music events. I fell in love with Filipino classical music. So what does music really mean to Filipinos? It simply tells them where they've been and where they could go. It tells a story that everyone can appreciate and relate to, which is why it's a big part of every Filipino culture. 

Music of the Philippines (Filipino: Himig ng Pilipinas) include musical performance arts in the Philippines or by Filipinos composed in various genres and styles. The compositions are often a mixture of different Asian, Spanish, Latin American, American, and indigenous influences.

Notable folk song composers include the National Artist for Music Lucio San Pedro, who composed the famous "Sa Ugoy ng Duyan" that recalls the loving touch of a mother to her child. Another composer, the National Artist for Music Antonino Buenaventura, is notable for notating folk songs and dances. Buenaventura composed the music for "Pandanggo sa Ilaw".

Antonín Dvořák’s Cypresses Echoes of First Love

 by Hermione Lai  July 27th, 2026

The string quartets by Antonín Dvořák are a treasure trove of Bohemian spirit and deeply felt universal emotion. What started as eighteen love songs under the title Cypresses in 1865 became a string quartet cycle of twelve miniature movements twenty-two years later.

Composed during a period of youthful infatuation and romantic longing, Dvořák’s musical imagination gained new depth and tenderness in his arrangement for strings, sometimes referred to as The Echo of Songs.

Melodies once sung by a solitary voice suddenly bloom into animated conversations. Shall we have a listen?   

Where Longing Began

The origins of Cypresses date back to Dvořák’s student days in Prague. During his studies at the organ school, he met the composer, conductor, and choirmaster Karel Bendl. They struck up a close friendship, and young Dvořák was a frequent guest at the home of the wealthy Bendl family during the early 1860s.

Dvořák had free access to the Bendl household piano and to a considerable archive of sheet music. Giving piano lessons to supplement his income, he fell in love with his student Josefína Čermáková, the elder sister of his later wife Anna.

Josefína wasn’t much interested, and Dvořák eventually dedicated his first song cycle Cypresses, to “my good friend Karel Bendl, as a token of our friendship.”

Antonín Dvořák, 1868

Antonín Dvořák: Cypresses, “So many a heart is as though deaf”  

The Poet Behind Cypresses

The initial collection of lyrical and epic poems emerged from Dvořák’s attempt to find his voice as a composer. And for his love song, Cypresses, he drew on the poetry of Gustav Pfleger Moravský.

Moravský grew up in Prague and received a German-language education. However, during the Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire, he became more aware of his Czech nationality.

Eventually, Moravský was conversant in six languages, but a lung disease forced him to abandon regular studies. He found employment as a bank clerk, but found his work so monotonous and boring that he started travelling throughout Germany.

Gustav Pfleger Moravský, poet

Antonín Dvořák: Cypresses, “Nature lies peaceful in slumber and dreaming”   

Poems of Love and Longing

He had actually started to write poetry during his time at the bank, and he published his first collection of poetry titled Dumky in 1857. This collection was not very successful, but things changed with Cypresses in 1861.

It soon became a well-regarded book within the Czech National Revival, as the cypress tree carries a number of associations ranging from mourning and melancholy to death.

In fact, it is a larger collection of lyric and narrative verse, and Dvořák selected his texts from a subsection called “Songs.” The poetry features a young lover caught between rapture and despair.

Antonín Dvořák: Cypresses, “I know that My Love to Thee”   

The Language of Longing

In these poems, we find one of the most important genres of 19th-century song, the “Liebesbotschaft” (Love Message). These poems unfold as intimate monologues to an absent beloved.

Invariably, the poems deal with unrequited love, longing, and emotional distance, and nature as a mirror of emotions. We also find dreams and distant memories dealing with idealised femininity.

And a good number turn to landscapes, like nightly forests, mountains, and twilight imagery, as emotional extensions of the self. They present sentimental but deeply sincere emotions.      

Echoes Across Time

When Bendl looked over the original Dvořák setting, he wasn’t particularly excited. Apparently, he told the budding composer that the declamation was poor in many places. Within a year, Dvořák conceded with delight that Bendl’s statement was right on the money.

In 1887, Antonín wrote to his publishers, “These little compositions were originally 18 songs, four of which were published as Op. 2. I wrote them in 1865 and now, after 22 years, I have arranged them for string quartet under the title The Echo of Songs.”

Dvořák tellingly added, “Just imagine a young boy who is in love—that is the content of Cypresses.”  

Antonín Dvořák: Cypresses, “Here I gaze at that dear letter”   

A Second Life for First Love

Let’s not forget that Dvořák was at the height of his powers in 1887. He had completed his oratorio Saint Ludmila, commissioned by the Leeds Festival, just one year earlier. He also worked on a private commission for a Mass and the Terzetto, with the Piano Quintet also taking shape.

The early love songs had always been on Dvořák’s mind, as he revised four of them and published them in 1882. Eight other songs appeared in Berlin in January 1889 under the title Love Songs.

These twelve songs served as the basis for the string quartet version. Dvořák in no way altered their vocal essence, as the melodic expression is taken by the violins. The viola and cello, in turn, share the keyboard part.

Antonín Dvořák, 1882

Antonín Dvořák: Cypresses, No. 9 “Thou Only, Dear One”   

The Music of Remembering

The original songs are clearly recognizable in these string quartet arrangements, with melody lines, rhythm, and harmony basically unchanged. Dvořák changed some keys, and half of the songs are extended by repetition resulting from interchanges of materials to different instruments.

The twelve Cypresses for string quartet, as we know them today, were not published until 1957. Dvořák’s son-in-law had published ten of them in 1912. This set musically goes from contemplation of the fleeting nature of human love to increasingly ardent declarations of love.

It ends with a feeling of urgent questioning that alternates with answers of greater serenity.

It is a youthful collection of love letters preserved long after they had originally been written. In their string quartet version, they came back to life by combining simplicity of utterance with the accomplished technique of a mature composer.

In Cypresses, the mature composer looks back tenderly on the passions of youth. These melodies are still filled with nostalgia and longing, but they are now illuminated by memory and by experience. People say that you never forget your first love. You may leave your first love, but it never truly leaves you.