Das Paradies und die Peri

Sir Simon Rattle conducts Robert Schumann’s rarely recorded Das Paradies und die Peri in his debut LSO Live recording, a performance featuring a superb line-up of soloists, top of the bill being soprano Sally Matthews. Rattle is well known for being a champion of this rarely heard work, and yet this is the first audio recording he has made of it. Based on an episode from Thomas Moore’s epic poem Lalla Rookh, itself inspired by exotic, colorful tales from Persian mythology, Das Paradies und die Peri reflects the 19th c. craze for all things Oriental. Schumann’s ‘secular oratorio’ tells how the Peri, a legendary creature, was expelled from paradise and follows her quest to redeem herself by giving the gift that is most dear to heaven. Conceived in three beautifully sequenced parts, it is unlike any oratorio of Schumann’s day. Sustained melodic invention is clear throughout, with Peri’s high C in the finale forming a deftly timed climax. “It’s the great mast