Fancy some lively, cheerful songs in waltz time by Johannes Brahms? Then have a listen to his Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op. 52, here in top-class instrumentation for four vocal soloists and piano four hands at a concert at the Verbier Festival on July 19, 2010.

Starring
Anne Sophie von Otter | MEZZO-SOPRANO
Sylvia Schwartz | SOPRANO
Christoph Prégardien | TENOR
Markus Werba | BARITONE
Bengt Forsberg | PIANO
Kirill Gerstein | PIANO

(00:00) 1. Rede, Mädchen, allzu liebes
(01:15) 2. Am Gesteine rauscht die Flut
(01:55) 3. O die Frauen
(03:12) 4. Wie des Abends schöne Röte
(03:57) 5. Die grüne Hopfenranke
(05:05) 6. Ein kleiner, hübscher Vogel
(07:43) 7. Wohl schön bewandt war es
(09:03) 8. Wenn so lindt dein Auge mir
(10:29) 9. Am Donaustrande
(12:34) 10. O wie sanft die Quelle
(13:28) 11. Nein, es ist nicht auszukommen
(14:19) 12. Schlosser auf, und mache Schlösser
(15:03) 13. Vögelein durchrauscht die Luft
(15:46) 14. Sieh, wie ist die Quelle klar
(16:46) 15. Nachtigall, sie singt so schön
(17:53) 16. Ein dunkler Schacht ist Liebe
(19:07) 17. Nicht wandle, mein Licht
(21:07) 18. Es bebet das Gesträuche

Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897) was fully convinced that his Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op. 52 were very cheerful and he even once said that he would eat his hat if his love songs did not bring joy to some people.

Composed in 1868/69, Brahms initially intended the Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op. 52 to be scored for four solo voice parts (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) and piano four hands. Later, the 18 vocal quartets were often sung by choirs as well. Brahms later rewrote parts of the song cycle for other instrumentations. At the premiere on January 5, 1870, the composer himself played the piano accompaniment together with Clara Schumann. One of her journal entries indicates that the song cycle was a great success with the public from the very beginning – reason enough to compose a sequel to the Liebeslieder in 1874, the Neue Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op. 65. However, they dealt more with the darker side of love, which may be why they were not nearly as well received by audiences.

The text for the Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op. 52 came from ‘Polydora. Ein weltpoetisches Liederbuch’ by Georg Friedrich Daumer (1800 - 1875), a collection of free re-writings of international folk poetry. From this Brahms selected only Russian, Polish and Hungarian poems, which he set to music as original miniatures, each only one to two minutes long. The characters of the loose sequence of love songs are extremely versatile and range from lyrically flat to cheerfully ironic to energetically determined.

With its continuous tempo and rhythm changes, performing Waltzes Op. 52 is no easy feat. In addition, the four voices keep changing in leadership. This is a challenge for the vocal soloists – but it’s also fun.

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