Sung by Amy Samuel (Soprano)
Beethoven's music was certainly inspired by his own deeply devotional spirit, though from all we know of him he had no need to bewail quite so many sins as the beginning of this song sets forth. It closes with a confident belief that the Lord has heard the singer's prayer and is taking the load from his spirit.
Although Schubert's tune is worthy of much better things, the poem of this song is a rather foolish little story, telling of the capture of a trout by an angler, as though from the fish's point of view. The poet is clearly in sympathy with the trout rather than with the fisherman. It is one of the melodies which Schubert used again; as chamber music enthusiasts know well, it forms a finely melodious movement in this quintet which is affectionately known, on that account, as the 'Trout Quintet'.
Schumann's expressive song sets forth how the Lotus flower closes in timid fear before the noonday-heat of the sun, and opens to the cool breath of the night.
The day was heavy with rain and storm, so the singer tells in Brahms' song, as he went from one neglected tomb to another; their names were so faded as to be hardly readable, and the first strain closes sadly with the word 'gewesen' (which means simply 'been'). But the song ends with the thought that instead the message should be 'genesen' (which means literally 'recovered from sickness').