Morgen!

"It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness and of pain; of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and of never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature and the everlasting beauty of monotony." (Benjamin Britten)

I have loved Richard Strauss's music for so long. I re-visited his musical land by listening to Renée Fleming's interpretation of the romantic mood poem Morgen! this morning, and the beauty is such that I feel my heart is going to break. (The videos below might not be the best versions, although I do enjoy the slow tempo and simple piano accompaniment in the first one. I also recommend Fleming's 1997 recording of Morgen! from her album The Beautiful Voice - a pure, deeply moving rendition. In addition, listen to my favourite soprano Dame Janet Baker's interpretation of Morgen, as well as a selection of gorgeous music, in my playlist here or here.)

Piano: Hartmut Höll. Berlin, 2003.


Live in Beijing, 7th Apri 2007.
China Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Yu Long.


Morgen!
Und morgen wird die Sonne wieder scheinen,
und auf dem Wege, den ich gehen werde,
wird uns, die Seligen, sie wieder einen,
immitten dieser sonnenatmenden Erde…
Und zu dem Strand, dem weiten, wogenblauen,
werden wir still und langsam niedersteigen.
Stumm werden wir uns in die Augen schauen,
und auf uns sinkt des Glückes stummes Schweigen.

Tomorrow!
Tomorrow again will shine the sun
And on my sunlit path of earth
Unite us again, as it has done,
And give our bliss another birth.
The spacious beach under wave-blue skies
We’ll reach by descending soft and slow,
And mutely gaze in each other’s eyes,
As over us rapture’s great hush will flow.