German concert programme — Strauss, Reger & Schumann

Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

Morgen! Op.27 No.4 (1894)

arranged for piano solo by Max Reger (1873–1916)

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Widmung Op.25 No.1 (1840)

arranged for piano solo by Franz Liszt (1811–86)

Of the twelve Strauss songs Reger chose to arrange for piano solo in 1889 Morgen! seems the least likely candidate for such treatment. It is true that it has an exceptionally beautiful piano part, which carries the main melodic interest of the piece. But the right-hand line, moving mainly in minims in a slow tempo (and awarded to a solo violin in Strauss’s own orchestral version), is difficult enough to sustain even in the original. In this case there is the added problem of fitting the vocal part between the two hands and, in spite of the fact that it is as much recitative as song, preserving its linear integrity – a problem which, given the contrasting colour of the soprano voice, does not arise in the original. To his credit, however, apart from adding octaves at one point, Reger remains as faithful as he can to Strauss’s scoring. If there was a temptation, shortly before the end, to elaborate the monotones repeated by the voice over long-sustained harmonies on the piano – a not very pianistic event – he resisted it. The magical closing bars are, of course, just as Strauss wrote them.

Liszt had no such conscience. Indeed, he might have asked himself, after adopting a comparatively modest attitude to Schumann’s scoring in the first few lines of Widmung, why should he? So he takes it upon himself to repeat that section in very much more Liszt-like colours with the vocal line in the left hand under increasingly brilliant arpeggios in the right. When the harmonies change to the minor modesty is restored with Schumann’s crotchet-triplet chords reproduced under the fervent melody in the right hand. The sensitively achieved return to the major is retained and the opening material is recalled – not, however, as Schumann conceived it but as Liszt recoloured it and then even further enlarged it. Happily, although it does not survive unscathed, Schumann’s piano postlude retains its chastity.