My conscientious Gastgeberin made sure that I experienced the glories of the opera section at Dussmann's. I have a Really Shameful Confession to make, Gentle Readers: I was so overwhelmed by its glories that I didn't purchase a single thing.
The Wagner section alone was overwhelming. I did make one proud purchase in Berlin, though. A little mild haggling at a street market, and I was able to bring this beautiful thing home:
I apologize for the snapshot glare, but look at its fabulousness! Not only has the "L" in Liederkranz been turned into an Apollonian lyre, but there's smoke from a holy flame.
Happiness, as Charles Schultz might have said, is coming home to play Lieder in the evenings. And this volume is filled with a bounty of them--nearly a hundred. Schumann is the most fully represented, with nearly 30 Lieder; Schubert and Mendelssohn are close behind, and Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and Weber round out the number. I'm left wondering about how the excerpts from Winterreise ("Der Lindenbaum," "Die Post") and Die Schöne Müllerin ("Der Neugierige," "Ungeduld," "Morgengruss," "Trockne Blumen") were selected. I now have a twofold mission: to discover what scholarly ink may have been spilled on the question of partial song cycles as parlor music, and to actually learn to play this music properly.