Liebeslieder, Op.52, and Neue Liebeslieder, Op.65

16 Animato

18 Animato 
13 Im Ländler Tempo

06 Grazioso

11 Piú animato

arranged for string orchestra by Friedrich Hermann

Brahms was one of Johann II’s greatest admirers: “Unfortunately not by Johannes Brahms,” he wrote under a quotation from “The Blue Danube” he had entered in the autograph book of a member of the Strauss family. The influence of the waltz can be traced even in music as serious as his symphonies and at the same time he was not above putting together collections of popular-style waltzes, as in the 16 Waltzer Op.39 for piano duet published in 1865. The Liebeslieder Waltzes Op.52 for (ad-lib) vocal quartet and piano duet which followed in 1869 and the Neue Liebeslieder Waltzes Op.65 of 1874 were a direct result of the success the piano Waltzer and were a huge success.

Since Brahms did not insist on including the voices in performances of the Liebeslieder Waltzes it is doing no disservice to him to present them purely as instrumental music. As for the arrangement for string orchestra – written in 1889 by Friedrich Hermann (1876-1924), a prolific composer and arranger – Brahms would presumably have objected if he didn’t approve of it.

All five of today’s selection from the Hermann arrangements are obviously in triple time. They are not all obviously Viennese waltzes, however. Johann II wrote nothing like the first of them, No.16, the outer sections of which regularly divide the ensemble into two halves (in the original as in the arrangement) so as to effect contrapuntal exchanges between them. No.18, the last piece in Op.52, makes frequent key changes to end in the relative major. No.13 is nearer the Strauss model and much of the graceful No.6, which extends to an expressive slower middle section, was surely intended as a tribute the much admired master of the ballroom waltz. The last of them, on the other hand, No.11 in C minor, has echoes of Brahms in the Hungarian idiom, which makes it an appropriately lively ending.

Rede, Mädchen, alzu liebes, Op.52, No.1

Am Gesteine rauscht die Flucht, Oop.52, No.2

Wie des Abends schöne Röte, Op. 52, No.4

Ein kleiner hübscher Vogel, Op.52, No.6

Die grüne Hopfenranke, Op.52, No.5

Nagen am Herzen, Op.65, No.9

Nein, es ist nich auszukommen, Oop.52, No.11

Wenn so lind dein Auge mir, Op.52, No.8

Am Donaustrande, Op.52, No.9

“I know of some famous composers,” wrote Wagner, “who in their concert masquerades choose the disguise of a cabaret singr one day, the hallelujah periwig of Handel the next…” He was referring, of course, to the distinguished composer of the Liebeslieder waltzes and the triumphlied. but what wagner chose to scorn in brahms we, on the contrary, tend to admire; the creative personality is as distinctive in a domestic setting as it is on the great public occasion.

Actually, there is an even bigger contraste between the Liebeslieder Op.52 and the very next work he wrote, the Alto Rhapsody, OP.53, which is a setting of profoundly serious txt by no less a poet than Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In comparison with that, Georg Friedrich Daumer’s verses in Polydora are frankly trivial. But they were just the words Brahms wanted for his waltz-time tribute to the Vienna of Schubert and Johann Strauss - rhythmical, flirtatious, and so little burdened with thought that it doesn’t matter how quickly they spin past the ear.

Th Liebesliedr, Op.52, were first published in 1869 as “Waltzes for Piano Duet (and Voices ad libitum)” which gives a good idea of Brahms’s prioritis. They proved so popular with drawing-room singers, however, that when he was persuaded to write a second set five years later, the Neue Liebeslieder, OP.65, he dscribed them as “Waltzes for four Voices and Piano Duet” and gave th singers equal status with the pianists, making a special point of giving them a solo opportunity from time to time - as in the sad little soprano song, Nagen am Herzen, Op.65, No.9, in the middle of today’s slction. Of course, far from neglecting the interest of the vocal parts in the earlier set, he did whatever he could to vary the texture. Rede, Mädchen, allzu liebes, Op.52, No.1, for example, is in the form of a question-and-answer dialogue between the male and female voices; Am Gesteine rauscht die Flucht awardes a brief starring role to the tenor line; Wie des Abends schöne Röte is for female voices only.

The shape of th songs is similarly varied. In contrast to Wie des Abends schöne Röte, which is a simple binary construction, Ein kleiner hübscher Vogel is a miniature rondo with a dramatic change of key for eachof the two episodes,. Whereas Die grüne Hopfenranke is based on one thm and the same two-not rhythm throughout, Nein es is nich auszukommen, OP.52 No.11, is a ternary construction with a uieter middle section in the relative miinor, and there is a similar contraste between the last two songs in this selection, Wenn so lind dine Auge mire and Am Donaustrande.