Giuseppe Sinopoli - Schumann: Das Paradis und die Peri (1995)

It has been so easy over the last century-and-a-half-plus to severely underestimate the creativity of Robert Schumann as a composer because he was so often thought of as a miniaturist, and because he was often plagued by self-doubts and, much more tragically, severe mental illness that caused him to end his life in 1856 at the age of 46, leaving behind a grieving widow in his wife Clara. This was, after all, a composer who wrote four very solid symphonies, a hugely popular piano concerto, an equally popular cello concerto, and various other orchestral works. Schumann also wrote choral works, notably a very inspired C Minor setting of the Latin Mass.

But one of Schumann’s most performed works during his lamentably short lifetime was a secular oratorio entitled “Das Paradies Und Die Peri”, translated into English as “Paradise And The Peri”, and composed in 1843. The peri of the title is a creature of Persian mythology, here having been expelled from “paradise”, but managing to find a way back in by bringing the tear from a cheek of an aging sinner who had seen a child praying. Schumann and his good friend Emil Flechsig based their libretto on a tale from “Laila-Rookh” by Thomas Moore; and it was a huge success during its lifetime. But over the successive century and a half, it fell out of form, due to its flowery Eastern-inspired imagery and its being sung exclusively in German. Fortunately, many recent recordings of it (including Sir John Eliot Gardiner with his Revolutionary & Romantic Orchestra and the Monteverdi Choir, as well as Nikolaus Harnoncourt with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus) have done a lot to bring “Das Paradies Und Die Peri”. And during the 2017-2018 season, Gustavo Dudamel and Peter Sellars presented a full presentation of the work here in Los Angeles with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and L.A. Master Chorale.

This recording was made in 1999 by an orchestra that is quite familiar with Schumann, the Dresden State Orchestra (Staatskapelle Dresden), under their late conductor (he passed away all too soon in 2001) Giuseppe Sinopoli. With a fine cast of vocal soloists, including Americans Florence Quivar, Heidi-Grant Murphy and Keith Lewis, as well as the Dresden State Opera Chorus, “Das Paradies Und Die Peri”, a work lasting about an hour and 40 minutes, is pulled off exceptionally well on this 2-CD set, which also includes an inspired rendition of the composer’s three-part “Overture, Scherzo, and Finale”.

Works like these are not often heard in concert (save for the L.A. one that I mentioned), but recordings of these works are things to be sought out. Sinopoli’s Dresden recording of this Schumann oratorio is one of those things one must seek out, with my highest recommendations.