The Lied or art song, in contrast to the folk song, came into full flower at the dawn of the Romantic era about 1810 in Germany. The art song really was a largely German phenomenon, known in French (le Lied) and English (the Lied) by its German name. It is Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms who represent the landmarks and reference points for the composition of Lieder in the German-speaking territories.

Soon after the arrival of phonographic recording at the end of the 19th century, they began to sing into the record companies' recording horns - so that the earliest sound recordings of this Edition date back as far as the year 1901.

The duty of the Lied composer, declared the arch-Romantic Schumann, is "to embroider the poem with its more delicate features in a finer musical fabric". Altogether, Schumann wrote more than 260 Lieder for a single voice before his suicide attempt in 1854.

The first three CDs contain Lieder in historic recordings. A fourth CD completes the set with three song cycles by Schumann in legendary interpretations.