Ever since I began posting videos of Beethoven’s music in chronological order, I have been dreading this day, for today is devoted to the Italian Part-Songs (WoO 99) — a hairy collection of what are essentially homework assignments.
Can I be blamed for taking an easy way out?
Beethoven wanted to write opera, and that required mastering Italian prosody. He studied with the eminent opera composer Antonio Salieri, and as part of his studies, Beethoven wrote a bunch of short Italian part-songs, mostly set to texts by prolific librettist Pietro Metastasio.
The 2, 3, and 4-part Italian songs that Beethoven wrote during his studies with Antonio Salieri are mostly collected under the catalog number WoO 99, which due to multiple settings, multiple versions of some settings, and renumbering, is quite forbidding.
Studio recordings of many of Beethoven’s WoO 99 Italian part-songs are available in individual YouTube postings. Search them at your leisure. Today I will restrict myself to posting the only live performance that I could find.
#Beethoven250 Day 148
Italian Part-Songs (WoO 99, selection), c. 1801–1802
Four three-part songs performed live by the Kallias Sängertrio in Bad Bellingen, Germany. English translations follow as comments.
“Fra tutte le pene”
Amid all griefs
Is there a greater grief?
I am near my beloved,
Am sighing with love,
And dare not say to him:
“I sigh for you.”
I lack the courage
To suffer so much;
I lack the daring
To beg for pity.
“Ma tu tremi”
But you tremble, O my treasure!
But you quiver, my heart!
Do not fear: I am with you
And will not speak to you of love.
Through thunderbolts and lightning flashes
I will be with you, beloved Nice:
When the sky clears again
I will leave, ungrateful Nice.
“Già la notte s’avvicina”
Night already draws near;
Come, O Nice, dearly beloved,
And breathe the fresh air
Of the calm seashore.
He who tarries not on these shores
Cannot image the pleasures to be had
When a gentle little breeze
Softly ripples the sea.
“Quella cetra ah pur tu sei”
Ah, yet you are the lyre
Which relieves my woes
That the road opens to every heart,
To every soul according to its skill.
Ah, yet it is you who,
So often, I recall,
Soften the indifference
Of my fair one’s heart.
All texts from operas and cantatas of Pietro Metastasio.
All English translations from Vol. 18 of the DGG Complete Beethoven Edition.
Anyone interested in exploring recordings of Beethoven’s WoO 99 Italian Part-Songs in more depth might profitably begin at The Unheard Beethoven site: