Es rauscht der Wald, es springt der Quell is an undated setting of a poem by Tieck entitled ‘Der Junggesell’ (‘The Bachelor’). The poem begins as a celebration of Nature and Romantic Wanderlust before modulating into a protest against poverty and against the difficulties of obtaining divorce, all couched within a merry jape about what we might now call ‘male fear of commitment’. Mendelssohn ignores the sociology in the middle and composes the most vivacious song of the open road one could imagine, full of mountain goat-like leaps and grace-noted exuberance for the singer.
from notes by Susan Youens © 2010
