Spanish song-cycle sung by BBC Singers (A):
Margaret Godley, Margaret Rees, Margaret Rolfe, Joyce Sutton, Bradbridge White, Emlyn Bebb, Stanley Riley, Samuel Dyson
Conducted by Trevor Harvey
First meeting; Intermezzo; Love's sorrow; In the night; Confession; Melancholy; Understanding; Message; and I am loved
At the piano, John Wills

Schumann's Spanish song-cycle was written in 1849, which Schumann himself speaks of as his 'most fruitful year'. It was certainly one of the happiest years of his life, during which he turned out some of his finest music. The words of the Spanish song-cycle, which describe a romantic love story, were selected from a book of translations of popular Spanish ballads that have also inspired several other great German song composers, such as Brahms, Cornelius, and Wolf.