Adelaide
Posted in Classical, Lieder on May 24th, 2009 No Comments »
Songs wera a bit of a sideline for Beethoven. But this is one of his best. It is to a, frankly, rather crappy poem by Friedrich von Matthison. It’s just as well as Beethoven rides rather roughshod over the words. He wasn’t Schubert after all. Nonetheless the insistent calling of the loved one’s name - Adelaide -at the end of each verse in a five note rising phrase is heart rending.
The lover sees her face everywhere around him, in the springtime, in the light of the setting sun as it catches the snows on the mountain top, in the stars in the night sky. He imagines a flower growing out of his tomb, its roots in the ashes of his heart, and blossoming: Adelaide.
This is Jussi Bjoerling, recorded in 1939.
