Johannes Brahms - 2 Gesänge, Op. 91 (1884)

Johannes Brahms (7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer and pianist of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. His reputation and status as a composer are such that he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.

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2 Gesänge, Op. 91 (1884 (No.1), 1863–64 (No.2))
for Contralto, Viola and Piano

1. Gestillte Sehnsucht. Adagio espressivo (0:00)
Lyrics: Friedrich Rückert (1788–1866)

2. Geistliches Wiegenlied. Andante con moto (6:13)
Lyrics: Emanuel Geibel (1815–1884)
after Lope de Vega (1562–1635)

Nataly Schtuzman, contralto
Gerard Causse, viola & François-René Duchâble, piano

Two Songs for Voice, Viola and Piano, Op. 91, were composed by Johannes Brahms for his friends Joseph Joachim and his wife Amalie. The full title is Zwei Gesänge für eine Altstimme mit Bratsche und Klavier (Two songs for an alto voice with viola and piano). The text of the first song, "Gestillte Sehnsucht" (Longing at rest), is a poem by Friedrich Rückert, composed in 1884. The text of the second, "Geistliches Wiegenlied" (Sacred lullaby) was written by Emanuel Geibel after Lope de Vega, and set to music in 1863. They were published together in 1884.

The celebrated violinist Joachim, who also played viola, married Amalie Schneeweiss in 1863. She appeared as a contralto singer under the stage name Amalie Weiss. Both were friends of Brahms, who composed the song "Geistliches Wiegenlied" for the occasion of their wedding; he withdrew it but sent it again a year later for the baptism of their son, named Johannes after Brahms. Probably in 1884, Brahms revised the song and added the setting of Rückert's poem, beginning "In goldnen Abendschein getauchet". It was again intended for the couple, but this time to help their troubled marriage.

Brahms announced to his publisher Simrock in a letter from August 1884 that he would send "einige Kleinigkeiten für Gesang" (a few small pieces to be sung) to be published, Opp. 91–95. The first public performance was on 30 January 1885 in Kammermusiksoirée (Evening of chamber music) in Krefeld, on the occasion of the Stiftungsfeier of the Singverein. The singer was contralto Auguste Hohenschild, the violist Alwin von Beckerath, and the composer played the piano