Recorded in Perugia between 2023 and 2025, a major new set of Schumann's song output for mixed voices – vocal duets, trios, and quartets – by a fine team of Italian singers, and led by the pianist Filippo Farinelli.

In recording previous adventurous surveys of the songs and chamber music by Ravel, Berg, Dallapiccola, Hindemith, and others, the pianist Filippo Farinelli has demonstrated his deep knowledge of and affinity for a wide range of chamber music. As he does here, he has gathered together a carefully selected cast of singers in order to present both rarities and established masterpieces within the catalogs of these composers, shedding new light on their evolution as creative thinkers and musicians.

The solo song output of Robert Schumann is well established among the peaks of the rich heritage of German Lieder. But alongside cycles such as Dichterliebe and Frauen-liebe und -leben, Schumann often returned to the combination of mixed voices, and these cycles are much less familiar to most listeners. Many of them catch the composer at his most genial and Biedermeier in tone, such as the female Duets, Op. 43 and the Mädchenlieder, Op. 103.

The Spanish Liederspiel, Op. 74 and the Spanische Liebeslieder, Op. 138 are strikingly underrated precursors to Hugo Wolf's Spanisches Liederbuch, in which a group of singers take their individual turns (in solo or duet) to outline 'sketches of Spain' from a German perspective (and from one who had never been there), full of charm and grace. The Op. 79 Liederalbum für die Jugend likewise reminds us of Schumann's genius for song-melody at its most artless, a vocal counterpart to piano cycles such as Kinderszenen. The poet Emanuel Geibel had adapted many of the 'Spanish' texts, and Schumann's Op. 29 trio of songs based on texts by Geibel catch the authentic spirit of the German wanderer. Here and elsewhere throughout the set we find Schumann's affinity for the world of fantasy and fairy tale. Lieder collectors will find this new set an essential acquisition, but anyone new to Schumann's songwriting will find much to delight them.