Im wachen Traume

The programme Im wachen Traume, named after a text sequence from the first piece of Schumann's song cycle Frauenliebe und Leben, combines the cycle in question - in a new arrangement for soprano and string quartet by Aribert Reimann - with music by renaissance composer William Byrd and baroque composer Henry Purcell. Most of the works are first recordings. The early English repertoire forms the framework of the album and encompasses the love and life of women in a thematic context that, to quote violinist Andreas Moscho of the Delian Quartet, "colours the space in dizzying harmonies, from the bliss of the moment to the end of all things." Claudia Barainsky, one of Reimann's most prominent interpreters, is impressively present throughout and gives the Schumann cycle in particular considerable expression - here she displays a keen sense for the emotional content of the text. Most of the pieces by Byrd and Purcell appear in revised versions by Italian composer Stefano Pierini.