Brahms - O Tod, wie bitter bist Du? Fischer-Dieskau

by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) ,

from "Vier ernste Gesänge" (Four serious songs),op. 121 no. 3

O Tod, wie bitter bist du?
published 1896

'See what violent words these are: 'for that which befalls man, befalls beasts,' and then in the fourth song, 'though I give my body to be burned'!" This was Johannes Brahms' comment, on the occasion of his first performance of his "Four Serious Songs" ("Vier Ernsten Gesänge") (Op. 121), for his Rhineland friends, at the Hager Hof estate in Bad Honnuf, in May 1896, as quoted by Gustav Ophüls in his Memories of Johannes Brahms. It was Pentacost, only a few days after the death of Clara Schumann, who had died on the twentieth of May.
"... It was more an intensified recitation of Biblical text in tones, which he gave us in his hoarse voice; and what we heard was entirely different than an art song. Since then, no singer, not even Meschaert himself, has been able to awaken the same mighty impression in me, which the improvised rendition of these songs by their creator made on me at that time. It was actually no different than if the prophet himself had spoken to us." Ophüls mentioned Brahms' shaking while performing the third song: "The third song, 'O death, how bitter thou art,' plainly gripped him so strongly during its delivery, that during the quiet close, 'O death, acceptable is thy sentence,' great tears rolled down his cheeks, and he virtually breathed these last words of the text, with a voice nearly choked with tears. I shall just never forget the moving impression of this song."

The "Four Serious Songs" were the last songs composed by Brahms, when he was 63 years old. He died less than a year later, on April 3, 1897. This song-cycle for bass voice and piano, which uses texts from the Old Testament, and the famous words of St. Paul to the Corinthians, has the character of a musical last will and testament by Brahms: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity [love, agape], I am become as a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal," culminating in the exclamation, "But now abide faith, hope, and charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity," (Opus 122, his very last compositions, are eleven organ chorale preludes, which Brahms completed in 1896.)

Visit below link for the rest of this article as an introduction to Brahms' "Vier ernste Gesänge".

http://www.schillerinstitute.org/fid_02-06/032_brahms.html


Original text:

O Tod, wie bitter bist du,
Wenn an dich gedenket ein Mensch,
Der gute Tage und genug hat
Und ohne Sorge lebet;
Und dem es wohl geht in allen Dingen
Und noch wohl essen mag!
O Tod, wie bitter bist du.
O Tod, wie wohl tust du dem Dürftigen,
Der da schwach und alt ist,
Der in allen Sorgen steckt,
Und nichts Bessers zu hoffen,
Noch zu erwarten hat!
O Tod, wie wohl tust du!


English Translation:

O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee
to a man that is at peace in his possessions,
unto the man that hath nothing to distract him,
and hath prosperity in all things,
and that still hath strength
to receive meat!
O death, how biter is the remembrance of thee.
O death, how aceptable is thy sentence unto a man
that is needy and that faileth in strength,
that is in extreme old age, and is distracted in all things,
and that looks for no better lot,
nor waiteth on better days!
O death, how acceptable is thy sentence.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Johannes
• Brahms
• Vier
• ernste
• gesange
• o
• tod
• wie
• bitter
• bist
• du
• Dietrich
• Fischer
• Dieskau
• Lied

[stevevandien]

Who is the accompanist? Gerald Moore or Jorg Demus?

[civileso]

It is Demus.

[Archantivos]

Just because they believed in god, and produced beautiful works in 'his' name, does not mean they they produced beautiful works because of this. I think that, had these geniuses not believed in god, and been inspired anyway, the caliber of their music would have been the same. Just because the world during, what I consider to be, the truly musical eras was virtually entirely religious (In one form or another) does not mean that it is /because/ of the religion that the music was so wonderful.

[wolkowy1]

Thank you for the uploading of this Lied with that wonderful performance, and thanks espec. for the detailed learned info.

[kelseyagibs]

@Archantivos Brahms did not write this because of a religious inclination. This was written in the two months leading up to the death of the woman he had loved for 40 or so years, Clara Schumann. He chose biblical text because it suited the mood of the piece, not the other way around.

[P1B1U1H1]

This sounds like Brahms. Very interesting.

[donconhar]

incredible breath control....amazing.

[1Victorinus]

Absolutely sublime music given a sublime performance. Thanks for having the key in the visual score be the same as that in which DFD is singing.

[iHondeux]

This is magnificent, always moving <3

"How bitter death can seem, yet so fitting.."

Beautiful!

[einherzundeineseele]

Liebe Barbara

Da hast Du aber eine exquisite Sammlung an wunderschönen Videos zusammengestellt, die mein Interesse geweckt haben.

Zum Beispiel Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Ehemann der Julia Varady.

Nun in deutsch, weil dazu die englische Sprache nicht reichen würde.

Herzlichst Alfred

[dabavog]

bravo

[CzarDodon]

@meltzerboy civileso posted this performance with DFD, I posted Kipnis. I like Dieskau as a lieder singer here and in Wolf in particular, at times especially when his voice was worn I feel he overdoes the interpretation in Schubert and doesn't let the music sing, I would say exactly the same about Schwartzkopf. In this Brahms I find Kipnis Ferrier and Hotter to be exceptional, but more recently Moll did a wonderful job, and live I once heard a splendid Fassbaender ... but thank Brahms

[meltzerboy]

@CzarDodon I generally love Fischer-Dieskau's singing, even in certain opera performances. His lieder are incomparable, except perhaps for Gerard Souzay for men and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf for women. But somehow for this particular lied, I prefer Kipnis' more emotional reading. Thanks for posting DFD, however.

[TommyHaegin]

@clarksc1988 Simply sublime!