5 Goethelieder

Lied des Brander (1918)

Lied des Mephistopheles (1918)

Lied des Unmuts (1918)

Zigeunerlied Op.55 No.2 (1923)

Schlechter Trost (1924)

Busoni’s Goethe Songs – published in 1964 as Fünf Goethelieder, a selection from from nine such settings written at various times during the last six years of the composer’s life – make a timely intervention between such serious items as the Mendelssohn Variations and Wolf’s Michelangelo songs. The first two derive from Busoni’s work on his opera Doktor Faust, the Lied des Brander being little more than a minimally detailed sketch, the Lied des Mephistopheles a wittily irritating version of the Song of the Flea which was to be developed into an episode in the opera. In Lied des Unmuts Busoni sets a text from the West-Östlicher Divan in sparsely scored caricature while in Zigeunerlied (from Gesellige Lieder) he offers a virtuoso study in spooky scoring for voice and piano. Written shortly before the composer’s death, the skeletal piano octaves of Schlechter Trost (based on another text from the West-Östlicher Divan) serve as a reminder that seriousness prevails here.