The means employed in
Schlummerlied, a lullaby taken from Heine’s early play
William Ratcliff, is of the greatest economy: a repetitive, yet distinctively chromatic ‘charm’, suspended above an uninterrupted tonic pedal, provides mesmeric support for Stanford’s unassuming vocal lines which, especially in their melismatic flights of fancy, are almost Mahlerian.
from notes by Jeremy Dibble © 2000
