The 1868 Liebeslieder Waltzes were an immense success, as popular in their own time as they remain in ours. Brahms decided to tap into the same vein six years later with these "New Love Song Waltzes," scored, as before, for four voices (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) and piano duet. Like those of the earlier set, these texts originated with folk songs of various languages; they were translated into German by Georg Friedrich Daumer (1800-1875) in his Polydora: A World-Poetic Songbook. The 1868 set drew mostly on Russian, Polish, and Hungarian folk poetry, but here the provenance of the texts ranges as far afield as Turkey (No. 1) and Malaysia (No. 10). Overall, the tone of the poetry is serious, and Brahms fashioned the music to suit their often somber moods.

There are 14 waltzes in this set, plus an epilogue entitled "Zum Schluss: Nun, ihr Musen, genug!" The epilogue, a setting of the final verse of Goethe's Alexis und Dora, stood apart from the 14 exotic texts and forms a conclusion with an intriguing relationship to the whole. Brahms divided the 14 waltz songs into two groups of seven and ordered them in a logical manner. Each set opens and closes with a song for vocal quartet, and key relationships within each group follow a pattern. There are thematic, harmonic, and rhythmic interrelationships among the various numbers as well. For example, Nos. 1, 3, and 7 share a motivic idea, while Nos. 1, 4, 5, and 10 have rhythmic elements in common. Also, though their melodies are unrelated, Nos. 10 and 11 initially use identical harmonies.

No. 1, "Verzicht,' O Herz, auf Rettung," is lively and muscular, while the ensuing "Finstere Schatten der Nacht" is subdued and nocturnal—its title translates to "Dark Shadows of the Night." The lovely melodies given to the soprano soloist in Nos. 6, "Rosen steckt mir an die Mutter," and 9, "Nagen am Herzen," are touching, and the effervescence of No. 11 is delightful. The tenor part in No. 10, "Alles, Alles in den Wind," is deftly fashioned by Brahms. The ensemble writing in No. 14, "Flammenauge, dunkles Haar," is full of color and reaches nearly ecstatic outpourings.

All in all, this is a masterful work that remains widely performed by vocal quartets of various abilities, even if it perhaps lacks some of the freshness of the Op. 52 Liebeslieder Waltzes.

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