Like his well-known "Adelaide", Beethoven's "Andenken", WoO 136, is written to a text by the poet Friedrich von Matthisson, and (again as in "Adelaide") Beethoven chooses to disrupt the structure of the poem in order to add greater emotional expressiveness. He made the last verse the most intense and longest, though the climax of the poem itself is arguably in the penultimate verse. The first three verses are contentedly lyrical and largely strophic, flowing smoothly from one to the next, with a tranquil piano introduction and accompaniment. The last verse, by contrast, is more dramatic and declamatory. The vocal leap on "in jeder" (however distant), adds intensity—suddenly making the song one of a far more distressing separation of lovers than the tranquil verses that preceded it had—as does the longing lingering over the word "besserm Sterne" (better star), and the repetitions of "nur dein" (only of you).

© Anne Feeney, All Music Guide