Lydia Teuscher & Iris Prégardien & Julian Prégardien ea.

“Actually, I will take the risk of being called a numbskull if our ‘Liebeslieder’ do not please a few people.” This is what Brahms wrote to his publisher Simrock when he handed over his folio of eighteen ‘Liebeslieder-Walzer’. Brahms turned out to be right. Soon after the first edition was published the songs were already so popular that he published a second series a few years later.
The ‘Liebeslieder-Walzer’ for vocal quartet and four-handed piano include some extremely intimate, charming love songs all written in three-four time. Brahms’ sudden fondness for the waltz rhythm had a lot to do with his decision to settle permanently in Vienna. As if he wanted to put the seal on his chose of this city on the Danube. One of the wonders of the ‘Liebeslieder-Walzer’ is the inexhaustible wealth of melodic entries and the extended range of moods: from sturdily rural to elegant, from gently melancholic to exuberant. Prior to this, only Schubert had tackled the waltz with so much imagination.