Befreit Op.39 No.4 (1898)

Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

Befreit Op.39 No.4 (1898)

Das Rosenband Op.36 No.1 (1897)

Du meines Herzens Krönelein Op.21 No.2 (1888)

Zueignung Op.10 No.1 (1885)

The Strauss group reverts to a more a more familiar area of the repertoire and to a source of inspiration which the vast majority of songs have in common. These four Lieder are not, however, uniformly rapturous in their celebration of love. It is true that Befreit is not without rapture in the repeated exclamations of “O Glück!” at the end of each stanza but it is only on the last occasion that it is not negated by the minor harmonies natural to a setting of words addressed, according to the poet, by a husband to his dying wife. Dehmel would apparently have preferred a rather more ironic treatment of his verse but, proudly rather than apologetically, Strauss later quoted the melodic phrase the goes with “O Glück” in Ein Heldenleben. In spite of all the blissful detail in the setting, not least in the lovely cantilena of the closing bars, Das Rosenband is not without its dark side either: Klopstock’s poem was written in memory of his short-lived wife, the poet Meta Moller.

Du meines Herzens Krönelein, on the other hand, is as uncomplicatedly lyrical as it seems, the not so melodious material being reserved for the lesser mortals whose shortcomings serve to offset the loved one’s perfection. Although the lovers are separated, there is no limit to the rapture of Zueignung – Strauss’s first published song but not, given its surging vocal melody, the least characteristic and by no means the least popular.