Sikorski
‘When I was commissioned by the Munich Motet Choir to write a choral version (with baritone and piano four hands) of Robert Schumann's Dichterliebe, there was also a mutual desire to add a work of mine for this instrumentation to this concert evening.
I had been planning to write choral songs for a long time. My in-depth study of the Dichterliebe and my reading of Christopher Clark's ‘The Springtime of the Revolution’ led to a selection of texts that was intended to be a broad panorama of the period, reflecting a wide variety of styles, whether lyrical, political or Biedermeier. The fact that Heine probably overheard the famous first lines ‘Im wunderschönen Monat Mai’ (In the beautiful month of May) at the beginning of Dichterliebe from another colleague made it possible to begin the song cycle with Schumann's music, which then moves further and further away and is expanded through alienation, choral effects and a very orchestral and dramatic use of the piano. At the centre of the cycle is the theatrical setting of ‘Schlesische Weber’ by Heinrich Heine.’ (Johannes X. Schachtner)