WoO 147: Ruf vom Berge

Время создания: 1816 год.

Дитрих Фишер-Дискау, баритон
Jörg Demus, фортепиано

Beethoven composed this song on texts written or assembled by Georg Friedrich Treitschke, a playwright and poet with whom he had become acquainted around 1811. Leipzig-born Treitschke had settled in Vienna in 1800 and eventually became widely known in artistic circles. Beethoven, never having been satisfied with his opera Fidelio, engaged Treitschke to rewrite its libretto in 1814. The results greatly satisfied Beethoven, who around this same time wrote Germania, a work for bass, chorus, and orchestra (WoO 94), for Treitschke's Singspiel, The Good News, a work produced to celebrate the capitulation of Paris and defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, a leader hardly admired by Beethoven.

The composer had great faith in Treitschke's abilities and was sufficiently inspired by his text to fashion this fairly simple but effective song. It should be mentioned here that Treitschke took the first verse of this song from a Volkslied, "Wenn ich ein Vöglein wär."

Beethoven had become much more sophisticated by the second decade of the eighteenth century in his solo vocal writing, but still composed songs in the less complex, strophic manner of this one, like the 1817 effort, So oder So (WoO 148; on texts by Karl Gottlieb Lappe). "Ruf vom Berge" (Call of the Mountains) consists of six verses and bears the tempo marking Etwas lebhaft (Somewhat lively). The theme is attractive and the mood colorful and light. This song is obviously not a major effort in the vocal realm by Beethoven, but it is skillfully written nevertheless and quite successful in achieving its modest artistic aims.

"Ruf vom Berge" was first published in Vienna in 1817.

(Robert Cummings, Rovi)

A very unusual autograph score: on a page from a notebook Beethoven wrote down the melody for the Lied "Ruf vom Berge" WoO 147. Although he only wrote in pencil and drew the staves by hand, it is quite clearly not a sketch. It has a proper heading and contains the complete text. Nor did Beethoven forget the clef, accidentals or metre. Two different stories have been handed down about this score. Both were told by the Giannatasio del Rio family, with whom Beethoven became friends in 1816. On 20 December 1816 Fanny Giannatasio del Rio made the following entry in her diary, "Another even more enjoyable evening in B...'s company. To Nanni's [Fanny's sister Anna] delight he wrote her a new little song, the manuscript of which she has kept as a relic." On the other hand, in a letter to the Beethoven biographer A. W. Thayer on 20 March 1881, Nanny's daughter Anna Pessiak-Schmerling wrote, "Once there was an outing to the "Himmel" (a picturesque vantage point outside of Vienna), which Beethoven also came on. Mother stood next to him at the most beautiful viewpoint. Beethoven pulled out his large wallet, tore out a page, drew five lines and wrote down the melody for the little Lied "If I were a little bird and also had two wings" etc. which was later published, gave it to my mother with the words, "Well, Miss Nanni, you write the bass part for it". My mother always kept the leaf as a prized memento. She gave it to me with the explanation that I am the most musical of the sisters and will therefore appreciate the gem the most." In actual fact, Beethoven gave the leaf to Anna Giannatasio del Rio, which she kept as a souvenir. The circumstances and reason for the gift are, however, more likely to correspond to those described by Fanny Giannatasio del Rio in her diary.

(beethoven-haus-bonn.de)

Текст

(автор текста: Georg Friedrich Treitschke, 1776-1842)

Wenn ich ein Vöglein wär'
Und auch zwei Flüglein hätt',
Flög ich zu dir!
Weils aber nicht kann sein,
Bleib ich allhier.

Wenn ich ein Sternlein wär'
Und auch viel Strahlen hätt',
Strahlt' ich dich an.
Und du säh'st freundlich auf,
Grüßtest hinan.

Wenn ich ein Bächlein wär'
Und auch viel Wellen hätt',
Rauscht' ich durch's Grün.
Nahte dem kleinen Fuß,
Küßte wohl ihn.

Würd' ich zur Abendluft,
Nähm' ich mir Blütenduft,
Hauchte dir zu.
Weilend auf Brust und Mund,
Fänd' ich dort Ruh'.

Geht doch kein' Stund der Nacht,
Ohn' daß mein Herz erwacht
Und an dich denkt.
Wie du mir tausendmal
Dein Herz geschenkt.

Wohl dringen Bach und Stern,
Lüftlein und Vöglein fern,
Kommen zu dir.
Ich nur bin festgebannt,
Weine allhier.