Matthias Goerne and Markus Hinterhäuser release a new album, Zwielicht
“Hinterhäuser and Goerne utterly immerse themselves
in the world of Schumann’s Liederkreis, Op. 39”
Süddeutsche Zeitung
From 1840, Schumann’s “Year of Song”, to 1852 and his final song cycle
Zwielicht comes out on 24 July 2026
Matthias Goerne, one of the world’s leading Lieder singers, has recorded a new Schumann album for Deutsche Grammophon with pianist Markus Hinterhäuser. On Zwielicht (“Twilight”), they perform the Liederkreis, Op. 39, a cycle setting poems by Joseph von Eichendorff; three of the four Gesänge des Harfners from Op. 98a (Lieder und Gesänge aus “Wilhelm Meister”) and the Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart, Op. 135. Zwielicht will be released digitally and on CD on 24 July 2026.
Goerne and Hinterhäuser have been performing as a Lieder duo since 2014, notably in the acclaimed production of Schubert’s Winterreise featuring video projections by artist William Kentridge which they toured all over the world. Between 2018 and 2022 their interpretations of the repertoire on Zwielicht graced the stages of the Salzburg Festival, the Vienna Konzerthaus and Munich’s Prinzregententheater, among many others. “Goerne’s voice offers solace to despairing souls,” wrote Der Standard. The long-standing piano partner of Brigitte Fassbaender, Markus Hinterhäuser is also a sought-after interpreter of 20th-century music – from the Second Viennese School to Feldman and Nono. This summer, he and Goerne will present an all-Schubert programme at the 2026 Salzburg Festival.
The works on Zwielicht span twelve years of Schumann’s song-writing career – from his miraculous Liederjahr, or “Year of Song”, to the health crisis he suffered in 1852. The composer wrote the Eichendorff Liederkreis within three weeks in May 1840. These 12 songs were among the total of around 140 he wrote over the course of that particular year, which also saw him finally able to marry Clara Wieck. While Heine’s words encouraged a kind of febrile introspection from Schumann, Eichendorff’s poetry inspired musical portrayals of Romantic landscapes in songs such as “Mondnacht” (“Moonlit Night”), “Auf einer Burg” (“In a Castle”) and the title track of this album, “Zwielicht”.
Schumann set to music the Harper’s songs from Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister in 1849, during the same period in which he was working on the Scenen aus Goethes Faust. The musical language is different here: lyricism gives way to a more questioning, analytical gaze; the songs of the wandering musician become painfully inward-looking soliloquies.
Composed in December 1852, Schumann’s final song cycle, the Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart, is even more austere. The five songs follow Mary Queen of Scots from her “Farewell to France” (“Abschied von Frankreich”) to a pre-execution prayer (“Gebet”). Schumann employs a recitative-like style in spare, direct music that faces death head on.
The latest addition to Matthias Goerne’s acclaimed DG discography Zwielicht joins Beethoven Lieder (with Jan Lisiecki, 2020), Im Abendrot (with Seong-Jin Cho, 2021), Lieder (with Daniil Trifonov, 2022) and Schubert Revisited (with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, 2023) in what has become one of the most remarkable Lieder projects of our time.
