(depicting a series of moods relating to or inspired by nature); the Frauenliebe und -leben of Chamisso, Op. 42 (relating the tale of a woman's marriage, childbirth and widowhood); the Dichterliebe of Heine, Op. 48 (depicting a lover rejected, but coming to terms with his painful loss through renunciation and forgiveness); and Myrthen, a collection of songs, including poems by Goethe, Rückert, Heine, Byron, Burns and Moore. The songs Belsatzar, Op. 57 and Die beiden Grenadiere, Op. 49, both to Heine's words, show Schumann at his best as a ballad writer, although the dramatic ballad is less congenial to him than the introspective lyric. The Op. 35, 40 and 98a sets (words by Justinus Kerner, Chamisso and Goethe respectively), although less well known, also contain songs of lyric and dramatic quality. In 1841 he wrote two of his four symphonies, No. 1 in B-flat, Op. 38, Spring and No. 4 in D minor (the latter a pioneering work in "cyclic form", was performed that year but published only much later after revision and extensive re-orchestration as Op. 120). He devoted 1842 to composing chamber music, including the Piano Quintet in E-flat, Op. 44, now one of his best known and most admired works; the Piano Quartet and three string quartets. In 1843 he wrote Paradise and the Peri, his first attempt at concerted vocal music, an oratorio style work based on Lalla-Rookh by Thomas Moore. The main role of Peri in the world premiere was performed by Schumann's family friend, soprano Livia Frege. After this, his compositions were not confined to any one form during any particular period. The stage in his life when he was deeply engaged in setting Goethe's Faust to music (1844–53) was a turbulent one for his health. He spent the first half of 1844 with Clara on tour in Russia, and his depression grew worse as he felt inferior to Clara as a musician. On returning to Germany, he abandoned his editorial work and left Leipzig for Dresden, where he had persistent "nervous prostration". As soon as he began to work, he was seized with fits of shivering and an apprehension of death, experiencing an abhorrence of high places, all metal instruments (even keys), and drugs. Schumann's diaries also state that he suffered perpetually from imagining that he had the note A5 sounding in his ears. His state of unease and neurasthenia is reflected in