Overview

A familiar and frequent motif in German Romanticism, the word Sehnsucht has no equivalent in other European languages. It is often translated as “nostalgia”, yet this is not an accurate translation: because Sehnsucht does not look back to the past, but to the future, to what is distant and unknown. It is more an expression of expectation, yearning or idealised desire, while sometimes, along with hope, it may also carry the sense of something unfulfilled or even unattainable… Altogether quite fertile ground that inspired composers such as Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and even Brahms, Wolf or Berg, this particular mood that is Sehnsucht pushes us to think, imagine and feel nostalgic of the future as an open horizon where anything is possible.