WoO 128: "Plaisir d'aimer" ("Romanze"), песня для голоса и фортепиано

Время создания: конец 1798 - 1799 год.

Peter Schreier, тенор
Walter Olbertz, фортепиано

Often found under the title, Beethoven's "Romanze," "Plaisir d'aimer," WoO 128, was first published in Jean Chantavoine's Die Musik, vol. 1 (1901-2). Sketches for the song appear among those for the String Quartets, Op. 18, and for the first setting of "Neue Liebe, neues Leben," WoO 127. One of Beethoven's only songs setting a French text, "Plaisir d'aimer," seems to have remained unknown until 1901.

The diminutive text, by an unknown poet, describes the power a lover can have over one's soul. The narrator, however, realizes that in protecting himself against this power, he will "lose his peace without finding happiness."

Opening with the unaccompanied voice, "Plaisir d'aimer" features a lovely, arching melody supported by a simple, pulsing accompaniment in the piano, appropriate for setting words addressing a "tender soul." Although through-composed, Beethoven separates the first two lines of text from the last two. The brief piano interlude between the second and third lines anticipates the opening setting of, "De vous, hélas,…" at the beginning of the third line. Beethoven closes the last line on the dominant, possibly indicating the narrator's potential fate of never finding happiness. More likely, Beethoven was following a tradition of repeating of the entire last line to return to the tonic. The piano has the last word.

(John Palmer, Rovi)

Текст

(автор текста неизвестен)

Plaisir d'aimer, besoin d'une âme tendre
Que vous avez de pouvoir sur mon coeur.
De vous, hélas, en voulant me défendre
Je perds la paix sans trouver le bonheur.