Ex. 11-6: Liebe und Frühling I

No. 2 of Brahms's 6 Gesänge (6 Songs, Op. 3), set to a poem by Hoffmann von Fallersleben. Brahms wrote it in 1853, at the age of 20. In the poem, vine tendrils sway in the breeze and white bindweed twines around a rose — an image of the poet's thoughts winding, day and night, around the one he loves. Op. 3 also has a companion song, "Liebe und Frühling II" (No. 3), set to another Fallersleben poem; the two make a pair.

The year 1853 was the turning point of Brahms's life. Still unknown, with nothing yet in print, he set out on a concert tour with the violinist Eduard Reményi, and along the way he met the violinist Joseph Joachim, who saw his gift at once and became a lifelong friend and supporter.

That autumn, on Joachim's recommendation, the twenty-year-old Brahms came to the Schumanns' house in Düsseldorf. The daughter who opened the door remembered him as a handsome young man with long blond hair. When Brahms began to play, Robert soon stopped him and said, "Wait — I must call my wife." Once Clara had come and was ready to listen, Robert told her she was about to hear music like nothing she had heard before. Robert wrote in his diary that a genius had come to visit, and Clara wrote that the young man seemed like a messenger from God. Soon after, Robert published an essay called "Neue Bahnen" (New Paths) to tell the musical world about the young Brahms, and helped get his Op. 3 into print that December — one of Brahms's very first published works.

This bright meeting came only months before disaster. In February 1854, about four months after Brahms arrived, Robert's mind gave way: he threw himself into the Rhine, and was taken to an asylum near Bonn, where he spent his last two years. By this time, Schumann's article had made Brahms famous, and the musical world was watching to see what the young genius would write next. This was the most important moment of his young career — and yet he set it aside, staying in Düsseldorf for the next three years to help Clara and her children, while she toured Europe as a pianist to support the family.

The poet, Hoffmann von Fallersleben, also wrote "Das Lied der Deutschen" (1841) — the poem whose words are today the German national anthem.

In the music, the voice and the piano follow each other in canon. Nearly thirty years later, in 1882, Brahms made small revisions to bring that canon out more clearly.

From the album Vergebliches Ständchen – Frauen um Brahms by Angelika Huber and Kilian Sprau (2013; unavailable on Apple Music)
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Also on the album Brahms: Lieder (Complete Edition, Vol. 1) by Juliane Banse and Helmut Deutsch (2000)
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