Strauss begins this 1900 setting of Otto Julius Bierbaum's 'Freundliche Vision' in a distant key, setting up the illusion of a dreamscape, while the events actually occur 'in broad daylight'. The gentle thrumming ostinato in the piano, however, belies the reality of the situation, sounding distinctly dream like. The turn to the minor, first at 'in die Kühle', and then echoed at 'in der Frieden', underlines the uncanny feeling of simultaneous dreaming and waking in the song. The pedal that accompanies the repeat of these sentiments grounds the poem's conclusion in the tonic, almost too early, throwing a rather strange veil over the final bars. Far from pleasant, this vision is much more of the beyond, as interpreted by Strauss.
Click here to listen to Diana Damrau's rendition of 'Freundliche Vision'.
The painting is 'Der Genfer See von Chexbres aus' by Ferdinand Hodler.
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