None but the Lonely Heart (Tchaikovsky)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed a set of six romances for voice and piano, Op. 6, in late 1869; the last of these songs is the melancholy "None but the Lonely Heart" (Russian: Нет, только тот, кто знал, romanized: Net, tol'ko tot, kto znal), a setting of Lev Mei's poem "The Harpist's Song" which in turn was a translation of "Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt" from Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship.

Tchaikovsky dedicated this piece to Alina Khvostova. The song was premiered by Russian mezzo-soprano Yelizaveta Lavrovskaya in Moscow in 1870, following it with its Saint Petersburg premiere the following year during an all-Tchaikovsky concert hosted by Nikolai Rubinstein;[1] the latter was the first concert devoted entirely to Tchaikovsky's works.[2]

Text

Mei's Russian translation (transliteration)
Net, tol'ko tot,
kto znal svidan'ja, zhazhdu,
pojmjot, kak ja stradal
i kak ja strazhdu.
Gljazhu ja vdal'...
net sil, tusknejet oko...
Akh, kto menja ljubil
i znal — daleko!
Akh, tol'ko tot,
kto znal svidan'ja zhazhdu,
pojmjot, kak ja stradal
i kak ja strazhdu.
Vsja grud' gorit...

Goethe's original
Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt
weiß, was ich leide!
Allein und abgetrennt
von aller Freude,
seh ich ans Firmament
nach jener Seite.

Ach! der mich liebt und kennt,
ist in der Weite.
Es schwindelt mir, es brennt
mein Eingeweide.
Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt
Weiß, was ich leide!

An English translation
None but the lonely heart
knows what I suffer!
Alone and parted
from all joy,
I see the firmament
in that direction.

Alas, who loves and knows me
is far away.
I'm dizzy, it burns
my entrails.
None but the lonely heart
knows what I suffer.

Notable recordings

References
  1. Brown 1978, pp. 214–215; Warrack 1973, p. 59
  2. Spencer 1980, 10:556.
  3. https://www.amazon.com/None-But-The-Lonely-Heart/dp/B0034J44BK Retrieved 2018-12-08.
  4. Leonard Warren; Willard Sektberg; Tchaikovsky; Arthur Westbrook (1948), None But the Lonely Heart, Internet Archive, RCA Victor, retrieved 2018-12-08
  5. "Lawrence Tibbett – None But The Lonely Heart / Myself When Young". Discogs. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
  6. "Rosa Ponselle – On The Air Volume 2". Discogs. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
  7. "Elisabeth Schwarzkopf – In Songs You Love". Discogs. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
  8. "Fritz Wunderlich – Largo (Händel) / Es muß ein Wunderbares sein (Liszt) / Caro mio ben (Giordano) / Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt (Tschaikovsky)". Discogs. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
  9. "IDAGIO". IDAGIO. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
  10. https://www.amazon.com/Songs-Op-lonely-Goethe-trans/dp/B0711VQJBV Retrieved 2018-12-08.
  11. "Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Romances of russian composers (3 CD) - AudioCD - купить онлайн". ruslania.com. Retrieved 2018-12-08.
  12. https://www.amazon.com/Net-Tolko-Znal-Only-Knew/dp/B0032127KK Retrieved 2018-12-08.

Sources

  • Brown, David (1978). Tchaikovsky: The Early Years, 1840–1874. New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-07535-2.CS1 maint: ignored ISBN errors (link)
  • Spencer, Jennifer (1980). "Lavrovskaya [Lawrowska], Yelizaveta Andreyevna". In Stanley Sadie (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. London: Macmilian. ISBN 0-333-23111-2.
  • Warrack, John (1973). Tchaikovsky. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 0-684-13558-2.
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