“The gorgeous month of May” is the ideal time to hear Robert Schumann’s song cycle Dichterliebe, which begins with exactly those words by poet Heinrich Heine. Schumann took only a few days to write the cycle in 1840, the year he married Clara Wieck. The cycle is fertile ground for mezzo-soprano Eva Vogel, who is in great demand on the opera and concert scene: here, she can testify to her great love of art song after having studied with Christa Ludwig and Brigitte Fassbaender. Moreover, the many layers of nuance in Schumann’s settings allow her to deploy the expressive range of her warm voice. The demanding piano part is taken up by Inga Fiolia, who gave her first performance at the Ruhr Piano Festival in 2018 and is already making her third appearance here. The young pianist can likewise apply her extraordinary sensibility for timbre in the impressive, virtuoso character pieces of Schumann’s Carnaval.