The Slipped Disc daily comfort zone (298): Only love

The Slipped Disc daily comfort zone (298): Only love

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norman lebrecht

January 28, 2021

This is the real thing: Beethoven’s declaration of love.

Except no-one took him up on it.

And the song never got into his catalogue.

 

Comments

  • John Borstlap says:

    The lack of serious amorous interest in Beethoven is one of the shameful monuments of indifference of the female species. Apart from that unique single one who could not part with her kids, quite understandable, if she had left her husband for the composer. That is what is called very bad luck.

    • Herbie G says:

      Ah yes, but if he had married, would that not have been a distraction for him? And anyway, knowing how he kept his home, would anyone else ever have wanted to share it? I guess that he would have heard the usual thing at least a hundred times a day from his wife: ‘You never hear a thing I say, do you?’.

    • We privatize your value says:

      Bruckner wasn’t any more lucky. In Beethoven’s case, the manic character and the drinking habits didn’t help, and Bruckner may have had pedophile tendencies, or at least to have been fond of much too young girls. Brahms and Ravel also did not have much of a heterosexual life (none of these four men was gay, pun intended).

    • Greg Bottini says:

      God, Borstlap, what bulls**t.

      • John Borstlap says:

        I’m trying to restrict it a bit, but it’s hard, I’ve to think of my salary. And mind you, there is more of that stuff I do already prevent from being aired here. So, we have to accept the inevitable!

        Sally

  • E says:

    For any who want to follow the German, here are the lyrics. The song is called “Zärtliche Liebe” (Tender Love).
    Thank you, NL, for posting these!

    Ich liebe dich, so wie du mich,
    Am Abend und am Morgen,
    Noch war kein Tag, wo du und ich
    Nicht teilten uns’re Sorgen.

    Auch waren sie für dich und mich
    Geteilt leicht zu ertragen;
    Du tröstetest im Kummer mich,
    Ich weint’ in deine Klagen.

    Drum gottes Segen über dir,
    Du meines Lebens freude.
    Gott schütze dich, erhalt dich mir,
    Schütz und erhalt uns beide.

    Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Herrosee (1745-1821)

    In English:

    I love you, as you love me,
    At evening and at morning,
    There was no day when you and I
    Did not share our sorrows.

    And for you and me they were,
    When shared, an easy burden;
    You comforted me in my distress,
    I wept when you lamented.

    May God then bless you,
    You, my life’s delight.
    God protect and keep you for me,
    Protect and keep us both.

    Source: Wikipedia in English, with slight revisions.

  • Ashu says:

    Good God, is that a cigarette in Fischer-Dieskau’s hand?!

    • David A. Boxwell says:

      DFD puffs like a chimney on the 1965 documentary following the recording of the Solti-Culshaw “Gotterdammerung.”

  • Anon9 says:

    Deutsch and Kaufmann win by 26 seconds over Rieger/Harteros, with Demus/Fischer-Dieskau lagging in third place. I would also place Kaufmann and Deutsch first for their tender and uncloying rendering; the other two (I hate to say it especially of F-D and Demus) were too sentimental for my taste.

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