Welcome to Song! The online repository for information on classical song.


CyberSing 2004: See and Hear the winners

Richard Strauss

1864-1949

Strauss was able to write Lieder that, from the very first hearing, are a joy.

Strauss wrote: "...I will be turning the leaves of a volume of poetry; a poem will strike my eye. I read it through; it agrees with the mood I am in; and at once the appropriate music is instinctively fitted to it. I am in a musical frame of mind, and all I want is the right poetic vessel into which to pour my ideas. If good luck throws this in my way, a satisfactory song results."

Nicolai Gedda, tenor
Hermann Reutter, piano.

Liebeshymnus (Love Hymn)

Set by Richard Strauss to the poetry of Karl Friedrich Henckell (1864-1929)
Heil jenem Tag, der dich geboren, I salute the day you were born -
heil ihm, da ich zuerst dich sah! I salute the day I first saw you!
In deiner Augen Glanz verloren Lost in the radiance of your eyes,
steh' ich, ein sel'ger Träumer, da. I stand, a blissful dreamer.
Mir scheint der Himmel aufzugehn, Heaven seems to open to me,
den ich von ferne nur geahnt, which I only imagined from afar,
und eine Sonne darf ich sehn, and I may only see a sun,
daran die Sehnsucht nur gemahnt. which my desire had only let me see dimly.
Wie schön mein Bild in diesem Blicke! How wonderful is my reflection in your eyes!
In diesem Blick mein Glück wie groß! In your gaze, how great is my happiness!
Und flehend ruf' ich zum Geschicke: And I call to fate imploringly:
O weile, weile, wandellos! "Oh stay, never change!"

Song! is funded and maintained by the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, a non-profit organization with 501(c) (3) status from the United States IRS. Contributions to the Foundation are tax deductable to the full extent of the law and will help to spread classical song both online and in ears throughout the whole world. You too can support the Foundation and this website.