Im wunderschönen Monat Mai

So who’s your sweetheart then?

Merely the month of May itself, alas!

Great choice — and especially timing — Mr Cusack. Schumann set the full length of this Heine poem to music (Op.48). It’s lovely first stanza sets the tone and I find it right on cue on this beautiful New York morning! “Dichterliebe” is surely among the lieder that match Schubert’s celebrated works. Few songs express the joys and trials of young love as tenderly. I first heard the sung version 25 years ago, sung then on a somewhat rare LP recording by a fine but unfortunately little known Danish tenor, Axel Schiotz (I am unable to proovide the diagonal slash that the letter ‘o’ in his name requires). Schiotz was a Danish hero of WWII who kept the Danish spirit alive during that time by singing Danish national songs in public and on the radio. I still find his Dichterliebe the most tender of versions, despite competition from the likes of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Fritz Wunderlich, Ian Bostridge etc, etc.
Thank you for the reminder of all the above.