Richard Strauss - Two Orchestral Songs from Op. 48 (1900) {Schwarzkopf}

Richard Georg Strauss (11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier, Elektra, Die Frau ohne Schatten and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; his tone poems, including Don Juan, Death and Transfiguration, Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, Also sprach Zarathustra, Ein Heldenleben, Symphonia Domestica, and An Alpine Symphony; and other instrumental works such as Metamorphosen and his Oboe Concerto. Strauss was also a prominent conductor in Western Europe and the Americas, enjoying quasi-celebrity status as his compositions became standards of orchestral and operatic repertoire.

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Two Songs from: 5 Lieder, Op. 48 (1900) orchestrated by the composer (1918)

No. 1. Freundliche Vision (0:00)
Librettist: Otto Julius Bierbaum (1864–1929
No. 4. Winterweihe (3:05)
Librettist: Karl Henckell (1865–1910)

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, soprano and the Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by George Szell
1966

"Freundliche Vision" (which has been translated as "Welcome Vision" but can also be read as "Pleasant Daydream") is both a German poem by Otto Julius Bierbaum and a Lied (art song) by Richard Strauss, his Op. 48/1. The opening line is Nicht im Schlafe hab ich das geträumt ("I did not dream this while asleep"). It is the first of a set of five songs by Strauss composed in 1900 and published in Berlin in 1901 by Adolph Fürstner. The works were scored for voice and piano and arranged for voice and orchestra in 1918 by the composer.

Strauss composed "Freundliche Vision", along with the other four songs of Op. 48, in 1900. This song sets a poem by Otto Julius Bierbaum, while the other four set poems by Karl Henckell. Strauss composed art songs as a transition between working in instrumental music and opera; he wrote his first opera, Feuersnot, the same year.

He originally scored the five songs for voice and piano. The songs were published in 1901 by Adolph Fürstner. Strauss also made an arrangement for voice and orchestra in 1918. "Freundliche Vision" is among the songs that the composer presented in more than one program on tours of the US, in Carnegie Hall in 1904, and in 1921 in the Town Hall in two recitals.

"Freundliche Vision" has features in common with "Traum durch die Dämmerung", also on a text by Bierbaum, including a shift of key, here to illustrate the contrast of sleeping and a vision while awake. Strauss repeats for the last two lines elements from before, Und ich geh' mit Einer, die mich lieb hat (And I walk with one who loves me), condensing the text that took three lines before to in den Frieden voll Schönheit (into the peace full of beauty), sung over a tonic pedalpoint in the same pattern as all of the song