“Zueignung” (op. 10 no. 1)

October 7, 1945: Detroit, Masonic Temple Auditorium

Ford Symphony Orchestra, cond. Dimitri Mitropoulos

October 23, 1950: New York, Rockefeller Center

Bell Telephone Orchestra, cond. Donald Voorhees

WHRA-6036

December 14, 1955: New Orleans, Municipal Auditorium

Frederick Schauwecker, pf.

Premiere Opera 122

March 8, 1958: New York, Carnegie Hall

Frederick Schauwecker, pf.

RCA GD 60520

April 13, 1959: Atlanta, Glenn Memorial Auditorium

Frederick Schauwecker, pf.

Bluebell ABCD 020

The English critic Alan Blyth, writing in Song on Record, dismissed “Zueignung” as a “somewhat paltry piece,” its interpretation requiring “no great insights.” It is true that Richard Strauss set Hermann von Gilm's text (with a tenor voice in mind) when he was just eighteen, but it is impossible to imagine a finer setting of those simple words, with the accompanying triplets lending an undercurrent of youthful buoyancy to the lover's outpouring of gratitude and devotion. Björling captures this buoyancy best in his own most youthful recording (made when he was thirty-four), where he is further inspired by Dimitri Mitropoulos's sweepingly romantic accompaniment. The performance lasts nine seconds longer (1:55) than the disc in which Strauss himself accompanies Heinrich Schlusnus at the piano, but a number of the features found in that disc are also included here, such as the softening of tone and slowing of pace in “und du segnetest den Trank” and the mighty allargando on the climax of “heilig” (here a heart-warming top A).