Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), An die Ferne Geliebte, op. 98, Wo die Berge so blau

Ian Bostridge, tenor Håvard Gimse, piano The great Romantic tradition of song cycles was introduced by Beethoven. The six songs in “An die ferne Geliebte“(To the distant beloved), written to texts by Aloys Jeitteles, constitutes a single entity which Beethoven called a “Liederkreis“, thus defining a new genre. The title of the piece embodies Romanticisms’ themes of desire and unexpressed love, which makes Beethoven a pioneer of the era. He was at the peak of his career at the time, but a combination of de