Saturday evening in the city. Coffee and biscotti with friend B. A slow walk through Harvard and Brattle squares in Cambridge. Followed by a concert of Brahms and Schubert lieder by a talented choral group I sang with a number of years ago.
The climax--and in my opinion, highlight--of the program was the set of Neue Liebesliederwalzer, op. 65 (New Love Songs). Brahms alone signifies passion and complexity and sweeping arpeggios. Add potent lyrics about heartache based on Slavic folk songs, sung in the spitting, vigorous Verzicht, o Herz:
Abandon hope of rescue, O heart,Such lieder. I was soon at their mercy.when you venture on the sea of love!For a thousand ships are drifting,wrecked on the surrounding shores!Dark shadows of the night,treacherous waves and current!Who, resting safelyon dry land,understand your plight?He alone can do sowho on the high seasfaces stormy solitudemiles away from the shore.
It was a glorious melancholy.
3 comments:
Dear Karin,
Schubert's lieder are nice, true; however, for deep angst, nothing beats a Bach cantata, especially during Lent.
True, squigkato. There are dozens.
"Christ Lag in Todesbanden" is perhaps my favorite. "Jesu Meine Freude," yes.
(Although the church man he was, I don't know if Bach wrote any good human love songs....! Brahms was the master.)
Dear Karin,
Well, the "Coffee Cantata" has a romantic element to it, no?
Still, good point. Well, then, how about ballads of the troubadours from Provence in the 13th Century?
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