Last year, we listened to Alexander Zemlinsky for the first time here on Liederabend. I told you back then that the composer’s work had been largely forgotten after his death in 1942; fortunately, his name has reappeared in recent years, and his music is once again being recorded and performed (we’re speaking of a composer who was once highly regarded).

The poet Friedrich Klopstock dedicated many poems to his fiancée, later his wife, Margareta Moller; she often appears hidden under the name Cidli. Margareta and Friedrich met in 1751 and married in 1754. Sadly, the young woman died in childbirth in 1758, and the poet mourned her for many years, also in his verses. This is the case, for example, of this week’s poem [...]

This week’s poem (the last in this series for now, next week we’ll talk about the Schubertiade) doesn’t need much introduction on Liederabend. It begins with the verse “Ich sehe dich in tausend Bildern” and was written by Novalis; I spoke about it in some detail when we listened to its first musical setting, by Franz Schubert, and later we heard it set to music by Max Reger and Joseph Marx.

Some time ago, in this series The same poem, one more song, we listened to the song that Charles Ives composed based upon the poem by Hermann Allmers that begins with the words “Ich ruhe still”, the same poem that Johannes Brahms turned into the beautiful lied Feldeinsamkeit. In that article, I mentioned that Ives’s song was an academic exercise assigned by [...]

This week’s poem is a bit like last week’s, “Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam”: it has inspired many songs, but none is particularly well known. I’m talking about the poem that begins with the words “Freudvoll und leidvoll” [Full of joy and full of sorrow], by Goethe, which is part of the play Egmont. It's sung by Clärchen, the protagonist’s lover, to tell her mother [...]