You Are the Peace

It is cause for rejoicing that there are currently several mezzo-sopranos and altos of a calibre approaching and sometimes equalling the late Janet Baker. My own favourite at present is Bernarda Fink, who in some ways reminds me of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, a singer of great poise and lyrical sensibility.
Here's her beautiful rendition of "Du bist der Ruh" from her CD of Schubert Lieder. Play it loud and revel in the full and warm tone. As one critic so rightly says, "Fink's voice has an affecting fondness that makes one listen when perhaps the innate familiarity of the music might otherwise lend to distraction. The old becomes new, and the new is perceived in a more favorable light."

"There is an amazing tension in this work. Rückert’s language wells with passion and is plainly a composition of temporal love. But Schubert has transposed the work into an ethereal world of spirit and faith with music which is a marvel of simplicity, classical and romantic at once–music that soothes like a balm applied to an open wound. The song is haunting." http://snipurl.com/pis3u

Below, an original translation of Friedrich Rückert’s poem.

Du bist die Ruh,
Der Friede mild,
Die Sehnsucht du
Und was sie stillt.

Ich weihe dir
Voll Lust und Schmerz
Zur Wohnung hier
Mein Aug und Herz.

Kehr ein bei mir,
Und schliesse du
Still hinter dir
Die Pforten zu.

Treib andern Schmerz
Aus dieser Brust!
Voll sei dies Herz
Von deiner Lust.

Dies Augenzelt
Von deinem Glanz
Allein erhellt,
0 füll es ganz!

You are the calm,
The restful peace:
You are my longing and
what makes it cease.

With passion and pain
To you I give
My eye and heart
Are yours to live.

Enter here and close
Quietly behind you
the gates of your
Gentle embrace.

All other grief
You dispel from my breast:
My heart swells
With the love of you.

Your brightness alone
Lights the canopy of my eyes
Oh, fill it fully!

–Friedrich Rückert, Du bist die Ruh (1822)