Search - Stephan Genz, Ludwig van Beethoven, Roger Vignoles :: Beethoven Songs

Beethoven Lieder

Robin Friedman | Washington, D.C. United States | 04/01/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This outstanding CD of Beethoven songs was initially released in 1999 and won a Gramophone Award. It has been reissued in a "Special Limited Edition" at a mid-level price. The performers are baritone Stephan Genz, a young German singer who has studied with Fischer-Dieskau and British pianist Roger Vignoles. Genz has a rich, mellow voice and the collaboration between singer and pianist is close and beautiful.Although Beethoven's songs have received some attention on disk, they remain the least-known part of his output. Beethoven composed over 80 songs, in addition to his folk-song arrangements, dating from all stages of his career. They are among the most deeply-felt portions of his output.Beethoven's songs generally have two main themes. First, the songs are largely pastorale in character. The lyrics are full of nature imagery and suggest that a good human life is one lived close and in accordance with the simplicity of nature. (In his instrumental work, the "Pastorale" symphony is Beethoven's most famous composition that exemplifies this theme.) Second, the songs address intimate love relationships. In particular, they sing of lost and distant love, and it is tempting to see many of these songs as based on Beethoven's own personal experience.Both the pastorale theme and the distant love theme are central to Beethoven's great song-cycle "An die Ferne Geliebte" (to the distant beloved), opus 98. This cycle is the highlight of this CD, as it must be of any performance of Beethoven songs. Beethoven composed this cycle in 1816 to poetry by Alois Jeittles, a young Jewish medical student and friend.The lyrics were apparently written at Beethoven's direction as they have no existence apart from the setting in this cycle.The work consists of six connected songs in which Beethoven celebrates his distant love and the continuation of his feelings in memory and in creativity. The cycle is set against a highly pastorale backround of nature imagery. The last song in the cycle repeats the opening theme of the first song in a moment of great intensity: "For before these songs yields,
What separates us so far,
And a loving heart reaches
For what a loving heart has consecrated"This is deeply intense music, the most personal, intimate, and romantic that Beethoven composed.The disc also includes a related short song, "An die Geliebte"
WoO 140. Beethoven made a gift of the text of this song to Antonie Brentano. Much recent scholarship identifies Antonie Brentano as the subject of Beethoven's letter to his "Immortal Beloved" -- the great and final attempted love affair of Beethoven's life. This short song, and the song cycle, show the intimate character of the feelings that Beethoven poured into his songs.There are many other excellent songs well-performed on this disk.The CD includes a song dating from the same period as the song-cycle, "An die Hoffnung" (to hope) opus 94. This is a long thorough-composed songs, with both declamatory and lyrical portions in which Beethoven shapes his musical line closely to the poetic text. There is an earlier version of this song, opus 32, not included on this CD.The other major collection included on this CD is the "Gellert songs" opus 48, a series of songs on religious themes. The performance on this CD expands the scope of the songs by including verses from Gellert's poems that Beethoven did not choose to set. The best-known of these songs is the fourth, "God's Glory in Nature" although the final and longest song, "Song of Penitence" is the most intense.Beethoven wrote several songs in a lighter, more lyrical vein, and they are represented here by songs such as "Maigesang" opus 52 no. 4, "New Love, New Life", opus 75 No. 2, and the "Song of the flea" from Goethe's Faust, opus 75 no. 3.Finally, the disk includes Beethoven's early song "Adelaide", opus 46. This song was highly popular during Beethoven's lifetime and it was performed with Beethoven at the piano for the dignitaries assembled at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. The song is sentimental in character and includes virtuosic piano writing in its final two verses. It remains endearing.This disc includes text and translations of each of the songs together with unusually informative and critical program notes.
This is rare music which will bring joy to any lover of Beethoven or lover of song."