Brahms Liebeslieder Walzer
LIEBESLIEDERWALZER (for four voices and piano duet)
Music by : Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Op. 52 (1869)
Texts by : Georg Friedrich Daumer (1800-1875)
Brahms completed his Liebeslieder-Walzer during the summer of
1869 at Lichtenthal, where the Schumanns lived nearby with their daughter
Julie. Her father had inspired Brahms’ explorations of vocal music, and
there is little doubt among his biographers that these love songs were each
an eccentric expression of the composer’s besotted ardor for Julie
Schumann, who would soon be betrothed to an Italian nobleman.
For the Liebeslieder, Brahms selected eighteen poems from Georg
Freidrich Daumer’s Polydora and gave a Viennese sheen to these old songs
of Russian, Polish, and Hungarian origin. The fifteen pieces in the Neue
Liebeslieder, published six years later, are also from Daumer – except for
the final, motet-like Zum Schluss, set to words by Goethe.
“The popularity of the chamber and orchestral works of Brahms has
tended to obscure the charms of his smaller vocal pieces, although the
latter total more than half of his musical output,” observes critic Nick Jones.
“The loss is ours, for these sparkling miniatures manifest all their creator’s
genius for musical variety, unpredictable inspiration, and gentle humor.”
Music by : Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Op. 52 (1869)
Texts by : Georg Friedrich Daumer (1800-1875)
Brahms completed his Liebeslieder-Walzer during the summer of
1869 at Lichtenthal, where the Schumanns lived nearby with their daughter
Julie. Her father had inspired Brahms’ explorations of vocal music, and
there is little doubt among his biographers that these love songs were each
an eccentric expression of the composer’s besotted ardor for Julie
Schumann, who would soon be betrothed to an Italian nobleman.
For the Liebeslieder, Brahms selected eighteen poems from Georg
Freidrich Daumer’s Polydora and gave a Viennese sheen to these old songs
of Russian, Polish, and Hungarian origin. The fifteen pieces in the Neue
Liebeslieder, published six years later, are also from Daumer – except for
the final, motet-like Zum Schluss, set to words by Goethe.
“The popularity of the chamber and orchestral works of Brahms has
tended to obscure the charms of his smaller vocal pieces, although the
latter total more than half of his musical output,” observes critic Nick Jones.
“The loss is ours, for these sparkling miniatures manifest all their creator’s
genius for musical variety, unpredictable inspiration, and gentle humor.”