Johannes Brahms: Liebesklage des Maedchens (The maiden’s love lament)

"So hat mich Liebe verwund't"

Brahms’s songs sound simple. The mark of a master, though, is to make the difficult seem effortless, and Brahms, Norman, and Barenboim accomplish that in this lover’s lament.

• Audio (Jessye Norman) – YouTube
• Text (Des Knaben Wunderhorn) – recmusic.org
• Score – IMSLP
• Article – Classical Archives

I initially was seeking Brahms’s Ophelia-Lieder, but could not locate a score online. The five songs last less than four minutes, and have also been recorded by Jessye Norman. They are lovely, but almost too simple — after all, they were intended to be sung unaccompanied and have a folk character.