WoO 140: An die Geliebte (2 и 3-я версии)

Время создания:
1-я версия: сентябрь 1811
завершенная рукопись: декабрь 1811

Вторая версия:

Peter Schreier, тенор
Walter Olbertz, фортепиано

Третья версия:

Дитрих Фишер-Дискау, баритон
Jörg Demus, фортепиано

Песня «К возлюбленной», WoO 140 на слова Иозефа Людвига Штолля была создана в 1811 году (Позднее на тот же текст написал песню Шуберт). В следующем году Бетховен осуществил ее переработку, касающуюся, в основном, фортепьянного аккомпанемента. Первый вариант был опубликован около 1825 года, второй – в 1814 году. Музыка песни полна трогательной безыскусной лирики.

Not to be confused with Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte (To the distant beloved), a song cycle rather than a single song, "An die Geliebte" was written in 1811 and scored for solo voice and guitar or piano. Not satisfied with this effort, the perfectionist Beethoven revised it in 1814, now specifying only piano as accompaniment. But the differences between the two versions hardly end with that change.

Looking at the score one immediately notices the substantial differences in the piano scoring, more subtle and a bit beefier in the second version. This observation should hardly come as a surprise in light of the alternate instrumentation allowed for by Beethoven in the first version. There are also minor and far less sweeping changes in the vocal line. Both versions are through-composed settings. In the end, the second is the more compelling of the two. For both versions, of course, Beethoven used the same text, by Johann Ludwig Stoll (1778-1815). It consists of two four-line verses and deals with consoling a grief-stricken lover.

Both versions are equally short, lasting under two minutes in a typical performance. The music is passionate in its slow and somewhat agitated character, and can be quite moving. It should be mentioned that the eighteen-year-old Schubert also did a setting of this Stoll text in 1815.

The second version of this song was published first, in 1814 in Vienna. The first was published in 1826, in Augsburg.

(Robert Cummings, Rovi)

Текст

(автор текста: Josef Ludwig Stoll, 1778-1815)

An die Geliebte

O daß ich dir vom stillen Auge
In seinem liebevollen Schein
Die Träne von der Wange sauge,
Eh sie die Erde trinket ein!

Wohl hält sie zögernd auf der Wange
Und will sich heiß der Treue weihn.
Nun ich sie so im Kuß empfange,
Nun sind auch deine Schmerzen mein, ja mein!