I'm not complaining
Ich grolle nicht that I haven't known Robert Schumann's famous song of the same name until now. I'm sure I've heard it. I know that I've looked up grollen in the dictionary - having seen the title of the song dozens of times. (Our "growl" and "grumble" may be relatives.) But for one reason or another the music was never at hand. Until yesterday. Yesterday, I found myself playing it over and over again, alarmingly glued to Matthias Goerne's way with the music. (And to pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy's.)
I am an instant convert to the church of this beautifully urgent song, "Ich grolle nicht."
Update: wondering if I just might have another recording of this song, I quickly found an EMI issue with tenor Ian Bostridge covering the same material as Mr Goerne (plus a few more songs). I admire Mr Bostridge, or I shouldn't have bought the CD. And I know that I listened to it. But the song just didn't register. This may be a song that I have to hear from a bass-baritone.
Comments
Urgently, crushingly beautiful. Of course, the grabber is that while the words say he's not, the music says he is.
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April 27, 2006 10:38 AM
In the original key, it's quite low and probably is best for a baritone. That is, until you get to the 'optional' high A which performance tradition has practically made mandatory. What a cruel song in so many ways.
Older scores sometimes have rhyming English translations written below the German. I remember one that began "I'll not complain...." which always cracked me up for sounding so utterly British--almost Monty Pythonesque.
I like the translation, "I bear no grudge".
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April 27, 2006 11:16 PM