Classical Music | Soprano

Recorded on 08/11/2011, uploaded on 09/26/2011

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

When Richard Strauss married the operatic soprano Pauline de Ahna on March 10, 1894, it seemed a rather unlikely match. De Ahna had garnered a reputation for being a hot-tempered and bossy singer, and by all measures unsuited for Strauss’s rather calm and self-composed personality. However, the marriage was a happy one, and de Ahna was the inspiration for many of Strauss’s compositions. One such composition was the 4 Lieder, op. 27, which Strauss dedicated to de Ahna, and presented to her on their wedding day. She often performed them when her husband toured as a guest conductor.

Second in the set is Cäcilie by the German critic and poet Heinrich Hart. Hart wrote the poem for his own wife, Cäcilie, though her name is never mentioned in the poem. A passionate declaration of love, Strauss’s music matches Hart’s lyrics with an ardent E major melody heard in the piano, accompanied by luscious late Romantic chromatic harmonies, and soon answered by an equally sensuous vocal melody. At the beginning of the second stanza, Strauss makes a masterful modulation into the key of G minor as the poet expresses thoughts of loneliness and worry that naturally accompany feelings of love. A triumphant return is made to the major mode, albeit G major, at the beginning of the third stanza, while the final reprise of E major is beautifully withheld until the last two lines when the poet makes his final declaration of love. Cäcilie was one of the songs Strauss later orchestrated in 1897. Transposed into the “heroic” key of E-flat major, Strauss made use of the full force of the Romantic orchestra, including even trombones and tuba, and is a fine example of his usual lush treatment of the orchestra. The song remains today one of his most popular.        Joseph DuBose

The Steans Music Institute is the Ravinia Festival's professional studies program for young musicians.