Strauss accompanies Alfred Poell (song 1 and 3), Maria Reining (song 2), and Robert Hutt (song 4)
Song number 4 may be played faster than the composer's intentions due to recording limitations in 1919.
0:00 Ruhe, meine Seele! (Rest thee, my spirit!)
3:13 Cäcilie (Cecilia)
5:16 Heimliche Aufforderung (The Lovers' Pledge)
8:02 Morgen! (Tomorrow)
Notes by Robert Stevenson for AllMusic:
Richard Strauss' Op. 27 set of songs is one of his greatest, considered as a set. Strauss was a composer of varying inspiration, and his several dozen songs contain his share of misses among many hits. Some of his greatest songs were published alongside weaker verse settings. Perhaps the surest indication that the composer thought well of this set is that he dedicated it to "my beloved Pauline" and gave it to the singer Pauline de Ahna on their wedding day, September 10, 1894. She often performed these songs.
Strauss had become acquainted with a circle of poets in Berlin that included Kaspar Schmidt (whose real name was Max Stirner), John Henry Mackay, and Karl Henckell. All were socialists. Stirner was felt to be such a radical that he made Karl Marx seem tame, and Mackay was even more of a rabble-rouser than Stirner. However, Strauss tended to pick the gentlest, most bourgeois, and most Romantic poetry from among the works of this group.
The opening song of the set is called "Ruhe, mein Seele!" (Calm, My Heart!) and is on a text drawn from Henckell's Buch des Kampfes (Book of Struggles). The name of the song comes from a recurring refrain. The song considers the past life of a person with a deeply troubled spirit, and the recurring admonition that one should calm one's heart seems to reflect the singer's passage through a stage of constant struggle. Fine as the song is (though somewhat elusive in expression in its original form), Strauss improved it when he orchestrated it. It was 54 years after he wrote it that he provided an orchestral accompaniment, which is dated June 9, 1948. Strauss improved the timing of the song by lengthening by a measure or two some pauses between verses, and by orchestrating the block-like chords of the original piano part.
The second song is to words by Heinrich Hart. It is a passionate expression of love. The name of the poem and song is "Cäcilie," who was Hart's wife. Her name is never stated in Hart's verses; the refrain of the song is the expression "Wenn du es wüßtest" (If you only knew), which builds in its ardent expression of love as it is repeated. Strauss orchestrated the song in 1897, partly to provide a song for Pauline to sing at his concerts as she traveled with him on his guest conducting tours. Once again the orchestration improves an already masterly piano song.
"Heimliche Aufforderung" (Secret Invitation) is the first of several songs that Strauss wrote to poems of Mackay, who also provided the text of the final song, "Morgen!" (Morning!). Much as Mackay might have wished Strauss would pick some of his socially conscious poems, these are both love poems. The first maintains the passionate tone of "Cäcilie," while "Morgen!" is serenely rapturous. Strauss made a beautiful orchestration of "Morgen!" However, he must have concluded that the highly pianistic writing of the accompaniment of "Heimliche Aufforderung" would defeat even an orchestrator of his abilities. A later orchestration by Robert Heger is lackluster.
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