LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN LIEDER · SONGS Matthias Goerne · Jan Lisiecki LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN LIEDER · SONGS Matthias Goerne baritone Jan Lisiecki piano 2 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770–1827) L Klage WoO 113 (“Dein Silber schien durch Eichengrün”) 2:44 Ludwig Hölty 6 Lieder op. 48 M An die Hoffnung op. 94 (“Ob ein Gott sei?”) 6:57 Christian Fürchtegott Gellert Christian August Tiedge A 1. Bitten (“Gott, deine Güte reicht so weit”) 3:41 N Adelaide op. 46 (“Einsam wandelt dein Freund im Frühlingsgarten”) 5:30 B 2. Die Liebe des Nächsten (“So jemand spricht: Ich liebe Gott”) 2:50 Friedrich von Matthisson C 3. Vom Tode (“Meine Lebenszeit verstreicht”) 3:24 D 4. Die Ehre Gottes aus der Natur (“Die Himmel rühmen des Ewigen Ehre”) 1:51 O Wonne der Wehmut op. 83 no. 1 2:14 (“Trocknet nicht, trocknet nicht, Tränen ewiger Liebe!”) E 5. Gottes Macht und Vorsehung (“Gott ist mein Lied!”) 2:07 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe F 6. Bußlied (“An dir allein, an dir hab ich gesündigt”) 4:07 P Das Liedchen von der Ruhe op. 52 no. 3 5:48 G Resignation WoO 149 (“Lisch aus, mein Licht!”) 2:53 (“Im Arm der Liebe ruht sich’s wohl”) Paul Graf von Haugwitz Hermann Wilhelm Franz Ueltzen H An die Hoffnung op. 32 3:41 Q An die Geliebte WoO 140 (“Oh, dass ich dir vom stillen Auge”) 1:01 (“Die du so gern in heil’gen Nächten feierst”) Joseph Ludwig Stoll Christian August Tiedge An die ferne Geliebte op. 98 I Gesang aus der Ferne WoO 137 3:22 Alois Jeitteles (“Als mir noch die Träne der Sehnsucht nicht floss”) Christian Ludwig Reissig R 1. Auf dem Hügel sitz ich, spähend 2:30 S 2. Wo die Berge so blau 1:32 J Maigesang op. 52 no. 4 (“Wie herrlich leuchtet mir die Natur!”) 2:00 T 3. Leichte Segler in den Höhen 1:39 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe U 4. Diese Wolken in den Höhen 1:04 V K Der Liebende WoO 139 (“Welch ein wunderbares Leben”) 2:07 5. Es kehret der Maien, es blühet die Au 2:25 Christian Ludwig Reissig W 6. Nimm sie hin denn, diese Lieder 3:46 3 UNDERRATED GEMS “The piano parts in Beethoven’s songs are relatively quent history of Beethoven’s songs. “Schubert has complex”, Matthias Goerne explains, “for they call for weighed heavily on Beethoven’s achievements in the an instinctive virtuosity beyond the reach of many pia- field of song to the present day”, Goerne points out. nists.” He found this virtuosity in the Canadian pianist “The concept of the Lied is so indelibly and perma- Jan Lisiecki. “At our very first meeting I noticed how nently linked with the name of Schubert that everything quickly he grasps connections and how splendidly he’s that happened before him is barely noticed any more.” capable of realizing every idea at the piano.” One of This also applies, unjustly, to the songs of Beethoven. Goerne’s main concerns from the very outset has been Just how embryonic the genre of art song was in to work with top-calibre pianists. He places great stock Beethoven’s day is manifest in his often tortuous search in exchanging thoughts on an equal footing. Alfred for a suitable generic label. He called Der Kuss an Brendel, Christoph Eschenbach, Vladimir Ashkenazy, “arietta”, the Goethe settings of op. 83 alternately “Lie- Alexander Schmalcz, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Leif Ove der” and “Gesänge”, and even referred to Adelaide, in Andsnes: the list of pianists he has regularly performed its first edition, as a “cantata”. These examples show with continues. Now over 50 and bringing all his accu- that the solo song with piano accompaniment had not mulated experience, he still forms new duos with bril- yet acquired the standard term used today: Lied. liant young pianists, such as Daniil Trifonov or Seong- Yet it would be short-sighted to belittle the impor- Jin Cho, in order to jointly explore the songs of selected tance of Beethoven’s songs to music history. His choice composers and to exchange fresh inspiration on a of poems and their poets already bears this out. Like mutual basis. Schubert, he had a sensitive ear for literature, even Often poetic and intimate, Beethoven’s songs are apart from his passion for Shakespeare. Just how among his most underrated creations. His symphonies keenly aware he was of his texts is already evident in and large-scale instrumental works have tended to his dogged and wearisome search for what he consid- eclipse his smaller compositions. As if that weren’t ered a suitable opera libretto. Rarely did he choose enough, Franz Schubert’s towering status as a song poets from the past for his song texts, as in Ludwig composer has proved a stumbling block in the subse- Hölty’s Klage. His principal sources were contemporary 4 periodicals and almanacs. He was perfectly aware that was still very much à la mode in his day, also due to its Bonn just as it left Beethoven’s workshop. The hand- op. 98 is fundamentally new, but it falls in a period music had to function as a precision vehicle for the ecclesiastical relevance. writing at the beginning is strikingly tidy. Some things during which he began to mistrust Italian expression meaning of the words. Of the infinite multitude of har- Nowhere is this more apparent than in his Six Songs that he was initially uncertain about (such as pedalling marks. His German instructions to the performer trans- monies, he once wrote in a letter, there is only one that op. 48 on poems by Christian Fürchtegott Gellert, which marks) are notated in pencil. Others, including several late as “Fairly slow and with expression” or “Not too truly fits in a song. Nor did he have an easy time prod- Goerne considers “a cycle on a par with An die ferne dynamic instructions, were later overwritten in ink. fast, comfortably and with great feeling”. These are the ucing vocal melodies. The lines he wrote for the human Geliebte. One mustn’t be misled by a few musical edi- Beethoven was personally acquainted with the same sort of instructions he would add to his late voice are strikingly instrumental. This alone poses great tions that print only a single stanza for each song. medical student and amateur poet Alois Jeitteles. In the cello and piano sonatas, where we find “Somewhat challenges: “True, the melodies are magnificently Beethoven, with his firm understanding of drama, tried very first poem he develops a tight-knit web of motifs lively and with the most intimate feeling” or “Melo- shaped”, Goerne emphasizes, “but they have few gaps, to write a cycle that changes and evolves, over and over that continues to proliferate as the music progresses. dious, with the most intimate feeling”. By this time at and thus few places to take a breath.” again.” When Beethoven first took a close look at these In essence, the poems hinge on the subjects of amorous the latest it becomes apparent that Beethoven, rather Beethoven’s songs are comparatively difficult to poems in 1798, Gellert’s Geistliche Oden und Lieder yearning and an affinity with nature. Rather than than addressing a large audience with his works, has sing: “These pieces require intensive preparation if they (first published in 1757) were already not quite in line appearing as a creature of flesh and blood, the Geliebte turned more inward in order to speak to the individual, are to sound organic in the end. With Schubert it’s pos- with the Zeitgeist any more. The final version was not (beloved) of the title is more akin to a projection that can the isolated human being. sible to rely more readily on instinct, but Beethoven has completed until 1802, at a time when he was writing his at best be divined but never physically embraced. At the end of the manuscript of An die ferne to be approached in a wholly different way. You have to “Heiligenstadt Testament” and preoccupied with inter- “Some modern interpretations”, Goerne adds, “go so Geliebte we find a few sketches for a piano post- transfer his entire aesthetic to the voice, as well as his nal crises and thoughts of death. “It’s surely no accident far as to suggest that the ‘distant beloved’ is not a geo- lude, partly in pencil, partly in ink. They reveal that distinctive inflection, which is, in part, shaped by the that Beethoven singled out these poems”, Goerne feels. graphically remote woman but one who has already Beethoven never truly finished the work, but piano. So with Beethoven you have to make a number “True, they fall short of the level of Goethe in their dic- perished. In this sense, the hill on which the artistic returned to it again and again. High time, then, to of preliminary decisions in order to attain a natural tion, but they express certain ideas that moved persona is seated becomes the grave of the ‘distant form a closer acquaintance with Beethoven the song inflection. Things are different with an early romantic Beethoven at the time, such as man’s fear of whether beloved’. It’s an idea that was by no means new or composer. composer like Schubert, where the singer has greater he will be granted or denied redemption at the end of uncommon in Beethoven’s day.” leeway in the details.” his life.” It speaks for Beethoven’s superb artistry “that Beethoven conceived five of the six poems as Christoph Vratz In his output of song, Beethoven often veers wildly he immeasurably elevates these rather workaday strophic songs.