1.Freundliche Vision

1900 was a prolific year for Richard Strauss in his most consistently favored medium, Lieder. That year, which also saw the opera Feuersnot, saw the Rückert and Uhland cycles as well as the Opus 48. In the latter may be seen some interesting foreshadowing of the processes which would in a few years transform him from that period's most important composer into the most controversial.

Five songs comprise the Op. 48 Lieder, the first with text by Bierbaum and the rest by Henckell. The first, Freundliche Vision, whose text describes an experience merging love and nature which is so intense as to seem dream-induced, penetrates the chromatic post-Tristan world, one which would reach fruition in Salome and Elektra; the floating vocal melody seems detached from the weighty accompaniment, as though taking leave of reality. The following Ich schwebe (I float), despite its title, speaks of a more earthly romance; firmly tonal save for the middle section, it speaks of youthful love and its sweet delusions; the sixths-dominated harmony and the waltz rhythm recall the Vienna of another Strauss. Yet another love, that of being alive, is espoused in the extrovert Kling! (resound); here is the Richard Strauss of the tone-poems, the rapidly springing arpeggios carrying the music through abrupt modulations and equally abrupt resolutions. The last two songs are meditations upon winter, a subject to which Strauss was often drawn; as early as age seven he had made a setting of "Winterreise" (not the same text as Schubert's. No. 4), Winterweihe, sings of the joys of a winter tryst, the warmth of the bliss indoors contrasting with the bitter outdoors; the key scheme is based on a systematic cycle of thirds, ultimately returning to the tonic. The last, Winterliebe, speaks of a lover's journey through a wintry landscape, the thought of his beloved warming him along the way and seeing him through; appropriately, the tempo veers towards the martial, rendering the protagonist doggedly determined in his goal. The five songs are for voice and piano accompaniment. Save for Ich schwebe, Strauss also provided alternate orchestral accompaniments as well.

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4.Winterweihe

Strauss set "Winterweihe" (variously translated as Winter Dedication or Winter Consecration), a text by Karl Henckell, in 1900 and orchestrated the song 18 years later. Horns hint at the vocalist's first four-note phrase in the introductory bar, upon which the singer enters on a soft bed of strings with occasional puffs of woodwinds. The slow, rapturous melody suggests the love duet that would appear some years later in Arabella, and sends the soprano gently but definitively high into her range during the second half of each verse, particularly the last of the three. The text is a confession of love:



In these winter days,

When light is veiled,

Let us carry in our hearts

And confess to each other

What fills us with inner light.



It ignites a gentle flame

That will burn on and on.

It tenderly entwines our souls

And builds a bridge between our spirits.

It is our hushed password.



Though the wheel of time rolls on,

We can barely catch hold;

Sheltered from the world's glare,

On our island, day and night,

Let us consecrate our blessed love.



[Or: On our island, let us dedicate

Our days and nights to our blessed love.]

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