Johannes Brahms - 5 Lieder, Op. 105 (1886-88) Score-video

1. Wie Melodien zieht es mir leise durch den Sinn (Thoughts like melodies steal softly through my mind) 0:00 2. Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer (My sleep grows ever quieter) 2:06 3. Klage (Lament) 5:21 4. Auf dem Kirchhofe (In the churchyard) 7:20 5. Verrat (Betrayal) 10:16 Performers: Christoph Prégardien (tenor), Ulrich Eisenlohr (piano) English subtitles (from Oxford Lieder) added! Press CC to view translated texts Stolen from Kelly Dean Hansen’s website (since I do not quite have anything too intelligent to say): The fifteen songs published in three sets of five, Opp. 105, 106, and 107, are the last “standard” Lieder by Brahms. Only the Vier ernste Gesänge to biblical texts, among his very last utterances, would follow. These songs are utterly gratifying for performers and listeners, displaying the supreme mastery of someone who had spent more than thirty years perfecting the craft of text setting. While several song groups rival the Op. 105 set in greatness (most notably Op. 96 among the later Lieder), it is difficult to find one more unified in theme, more carefully planned in structure and form. This is not immediately apparent because complete performance almost requires two singers. No. 2 is in an explicitly feminine voice, while No. 5 is not only explicitly masculine, but one of only two songs outside the Vier ernste Gesänge where Brahms notated the vocal part in the bass clef. Like Op. 86 and Op. 94, the set is specified for low voice in the original keys, but of course high key editions have been published. The opening song, one of his most familiar and melodious, functions as an introduction to the themes of the remaining four. Groth’s highly abstract lines about the fusion of word and melody are rendered comprehensible by Brahms’s flowing setting, with its varied closing for each strophe. The four songs that follow seem to present “feminine” and “masculine” viewpoints on the alternating themes of “death” and romantic “betrayal.” The image of the dying girl addressing her beloved in No. 2 is easily one of the most masterful unions of words and music, in direct response to the sentiments of No. 1. No. 3 is a simple strophic folk setting, but one in which the musical expression within the verse is deftly tailored to fit all the texts. The profound No. 4, with its quotation of the chorale melody associated with Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and musing on death, clearly anticipates the mood of the Vier ernste Gesänge. Finally, No. 5, though set to a less than exalted text by a minor poet Brahms oddly favored, is a great dramatic song by any standard, an awesome vehicle for baritone and bass singers, and a extremely effective culmination for the set. A narrative ballad yields to a middle section more like an actual staged scene, with the memorable climactic murder of the jealous narrator’s rival.