"" (Winter night) is an art song for voice and piano composed by Richard Strauss in 1886, setting a poem of the same title by the German poet

Adolf Friedrich von Schack Adolf Friedrich, Graf von Schack (2 August 181514 April 1894) was a German poet, historian of literature and art collector. Background Schack was born at Brüsewitz near Schwerin. Having studied jurisprudence (1834–1838) at the universities o ...

(1815–1894). The song is part of his collection ''Five songs for middle voice and piano'', Op. 15, TrV 148.

Composition history

Strauss set 4 songs by Adolf von Schack in his opus 15 songs. Von Schack, who was still alive in 1886, was a notable member of the

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

cultural elite, a member of the academy of sciences, notable art collector and prime mover in Bavarian literary life. Strauss starts the poem "with rain and roaring wind," writes Alan Jefferson.

It will be seen that the rain and roaring wind are not the real content of this poem, for in spite of the storm raging outside the singer and his lady turn it into an indoor spring with their lovemaking. Strauss points this when he comes out of G minor, D minor and B-flat minor into the tranquil G major passage. Though in reminding us what is still going on outside, the song ends with the first motif, with the penultimate chord (C minor with added 6th) avoiding the conventional G minor close by going into G major instead.

Lyrics

Commentary

Rufus Hallmark in ''German Lieder in the Nineteenth Century'' describes the song as 'rarely performed' and comments that it "offers examples of the Straussian word painting found in many of his lieder...the recurrent piano motive...dramatically anticipates hetumult of the storm...a subtle unifying idea in the vocal line is the simple stepwise quarter-note descent. The first two stanzas in G minor give way to G major and a more lyrical, calmer portrayal of drifting snowflakes and thoughts of love and springtime." Critic Charles Osborne has described it as "disappointingly pedestrian." However, the song may be experiencing a revival: two recent collections of Strauss songs, one from 2014 by American bass baritone

Thomas Hampson Thomas Walter Hampson (born June 28, 1955) is an American lyric baritone, a classical singer who has appeared world-wide in major opera houses and concert halls and made over 170 musical recordings. Hampson's operatic repertoire spans a range ...

and one from 2015 by German sopran
Katharina Persicke
have included the song in their selection.''Thomas Hampson: Notturno'', Deutsche Gramaphon DG 4792943 and Katharina Persicke ''Ruhe, meine Seele! Rest by Soul''!, Geniune GEN15379.

References

Notes Sources *

Norman Del Mar Norman René Del Mar CBE (31 July 19196 February 1994) was a British conductor, horn player, and biographer. As a conductor, he specialised in the music of late romantic composers; including Edward Elgar, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Strauss. H ...

, ''Richard Strauss. A Critical Commentary on his Life and Works'', Volume 3, London: Faber and Faber (2009)

968 Year 968 ( CMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Emperor Nikephoros II receives a Bulgarian embassy led by Prince Boris (th ...

(second edition), . * Jefferson, Alan. (1971) ''The Lieder of Richard Straus'', Cassel and Company, London. * Schuh, W. ''Richard Strauss: A Chronicle of the Early Years 1864-1898'', (translated by Mary Wittal), Cambridge University Press, 1982. . * Trenner, Franz (2003) ''Richard Strauss Chronik'', Verlag Dr Richard Strauss Gmbh, Wien, .

External links

Text and translation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Winternacht Songs about nights Songs by Richard Strauss 1886 songs