Brahms Alto Rhapsody - Janet Baker Alt Rhapsodie Op.53. Live recording with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by János Ferencsik.
Click CC (Closed Captioning) for the original German text and the English translation.
The slower Kathleen Ferrier recording is my favourite of the Alto Rhapsody, but Janet Baker's version is still impressive. I changed the score and added new text with clearer to read font.
Orchestration: alto, chorus (TB), 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, strings. The first of four short choral/orchestral pieces that are often grouped together, all of which last around twelve to fifteen minutes. These include the Schicksalslied, published immediately thereafter, and two more works from the 1880s (and the Op. 80s), the Nänie and the Gesang der Parzen.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
But who is that apart?
His path disappears in the bushes;
behind him the branches spring together;
the grass stands up again;
the wasteland engulfs him.
Ah, who heals the pains
of him for whom balsam turned to poison?
Who drank hatred of man
from the abundance of love?
First scorned, now a scorner,
he secretly feeds on
his own merit,
in unsatisfying egotism.
If there is on your psaltery,
Father of love, one note
his ear can hear,
then refresh his heart!
Open his clouded gaze
to the thousand springs
next to him who thirsts
in the wilderness!
GERMAN TEXT:
Aber abseits wer ist's?
Im Gebüsch verliert sich sein Pfad;
hinter ihm schlagen die Sträuche zusammen,
das Gras steht wieder auf,
die Öde verschlingt ihn.
Ach, wer heilet die Schmerzen
dess, dem Balsam zu Gift ward?
Der sich Menschenhaß
aus der Fülle der Liebe trank!
Erst verachtet, nun ein Verächter,
zehrt er heimlich auf
seinen eigenen Wert
In ungenügender Selbstsucht.
Ist auf deinem Psalter,
Vater der Liebe, ein Ton
seinem Ohre vernehmlich,
so erquicke sein Herz!
Öffne den umwölkten Blick
über die tausend Quellen
neben dem Durstenden
in der Wüste!
