Some music does not need explanation. It speaks immediately. Widmung, Op. 25 No. 1, by Robert Schumann is one of those works. Composed in 1840 — Schumann’s celebrated “year of song” — Widmung opens the cycle Myrthen , written as a wedding gift for Clara Schumann. The poem, by Friedrich Rückert, expresses devotion without hesitation, without irony, without reserve. It is love declared in its purest form. The music mirrors the poetry with extraordinary sensitivity. Harmony, rhy