Sehnsucht- Beethoven Op. 83-2, Schubert D. 123

🎼🎶 Friday, May 21, 2021
Another of Goethe’s poems set quite differently by Beethoven and Schubert is called “Sehnsucht” (Longing), better known as “Was zieht mir das Herz so?” (What pulls at my heart so?). Beethoven’s setting appeared in 1810, Schubert’s in 1814.
Both settings here are performed by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Gerald Moore.
What pulls at my heart so?
What pulls me outside?
And twists me and yanks me
from room and from house?
How the clouds there
disperse around the cliffs!
Over there would I go,
I want to go there!
Now swings by the ravens’
companionable flight;
I mingle with them
and follow their course.
And mountain and ruin
we circle in flight;
she lingers below,
I watch for her.
Then she comes wandering;
I hurry immediately,
a singing bird,
to the bushy wood.
She lingers and listens
and smiles to herself:
"He sings so sweetly
and is singing for me!"
The departing sun
makes golden the hills;
the fair one, pensive,
lets it be so.
She wanders by the brook,
along the meadows,
and darker and darker
twists the path;
All at once I appear,
a glittering star.
"What gleams up there,
so near and so far?"
And when, with astonishment,
you gaze upon this light,
I will lie at your feet,
And there be content!
Beethoven : Sehnsucht, op.83 nr.2 (English subtitles)
Beethoven : Sehnsucht, op.83 nr.2 (English subtitles)
Sehnsucht, D. 123 - Was zieht mir das Herz so?
Schubert: Sehnsucht, D. 123 - Was zieht mir das Herz so?
  • John Scialdone
    published this page in Daily Beethoven 2021-05-21 12:37:27 -0400

DONATE Join the Chorus! Contact

get updates