The first movement of the Schumann & Wieck Symphony, Le Prélude, consists of 12 paintings in which is depicted a white rose at different stages of blooming. The canvases are combined to form a single work of art, 11 metres in length, where the spectator experiences the entire life story of the rose.
The Schumann piece paired with this first movement is Opus 82. It is a collection of nine short piano pieces, Waldszenen (Forest scenes), they describe a walk in the forest. The fourth piece, Haunted Place, is preceded by a poem from Friedrich Hebbel, which sets the tone for the melody as well as for Le Prélude itself.
The flowers which grow so tall
are here pale as death;
only one in the middle
stands there dark red.
It draws its colour not from the sun:
it has never met its glow;
it draws it from the earth,
which drank human blood.
