Beethoven 250: Lieder

As I explained in the January 24, 2020 post, I purchased the Naxos collection of Beethoven's complete works (90 CDs), which I plan to listen to this year, leading up to Beethoven's 250th birthday on December 16. 

Picking up where I left off in my October 20 post, I listened to the remaining CDs of the set, most of which are Beethoven’s Lieder. Would you have guessed that Beethoven was quite the songwriter? He wrote many songs!  

CD 78 

Irish Songs (WoO 152, 1810-13)

79 

Irish Songs (WoO 152, 1810-15)

80 

Irish Songs (WoO 154, 1810-15); Welsh Songs (WoO 155, 1810-15)

81 

Scottish Songs (WoO 156, 1810-12)

82 

4 English Songs (WoO 157, 1816/19); 29 Songs of Various Nationality (WoO 158, 1816-20) 

83 

25 Scottish Songs (Op. 108, 1810-20) 

84 

More Irish, Welsh, Scottish Songs, and songs of various nationalities 

85-88 

Lieder, Vol. 1-4

Here are the liner notes to a another collection of Beethoven’s complete songs. http://www.beethovenlieder.de/en/About-Beethovens-Lieder.php The author there writes: “ …. whilst for Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Wolf the composition of Lieder and songs was central to their work, Beethoven turned to Lied composition regularly but with less intensity than his successors.”

The author continues, “Anyone listening to his Lieder and songs in combination will realise that this rich bouquet of influential works, occasional compositions, love songs, humorous songs and serious pieces with religious or philosophical texts can offer music lovers an extraordinary amount of pleasure. Beethoven's Lied universe contains an abundance of musical beauties, and through their texts he offers today's listeners a variety of insights into the intellectual, imaginative and emotional world of the late 18th and early 19th century.” 

Read that whole essay for a good overview of Beethoven’s Lieder. The author adds, “An die ferne Geliebte (To the distant beloved) op. 98 is incontestably not only Beethoven's longest Lied composition but also the most significant, and for the performers the most demanding. Composed in April 1816 and highly esteemed even during the 19th century, it is considered the crowning glory of Beethoven's Lied output.” 

Here is another essay that I found concerning his songs: https://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-9295/ 

Like so much else on this set, I’ll have to return to the songs again in the future. This time listening to the 90 CDs on this set, I did go back to the 1808 “Choral Fantasy,” the theme of which I’ve always loved! We heard it performed by the Cleveland Orchestral at Blossom Music Center during the ‘00s. 

I also went back to listen to the “Missa Solemnis.” My first record of this piece was conducted by Kurt Masur, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, on a Eurodisc set that I purchased in the early 1980s. This author of this essay---https://coloradosymphony.org/Blog/the-greatest-piece-never-heard-why-beethovens-missa-solemnis-is-a-hidden-gem--comments that the Missa is a “hidden gem” that can be considered a companion piece to the Ninth Symphony but is much more seldom performed.