Poems of Queen Mary Stuart

Two things in particular link Aribert Reimann with Robert Schumann, whom he much admires: their interest in the dark side of human existence and their great commitment to literature. The both took an interest in the poems by the Scottish queen Mary Stuart written at the end of her life during her imprisonment. For a long time, Reimann had cherished the wish to orchestrate the lieder by Schumann based on these poems, ‘but I always lacked in courage […] to break up the rather barren piano part which is formally self-contained and complete in itself’. But while working on Sieben Fragmente für Orchester in 1988, he decided to take the risk. And although Schumann‘s music is never really touched, Reimann succeeds in bringing the deeply moving expression of the lieder even closer to the listener.