Goethe’s tongue-in-cheek ballad
Die wandelnde Glocke tells the story of an errant schoolboy terrified into mending his ways by a roving bell. Loewe’s setting of 1832 illustrates the narrative in delightful picture-book style. The voice sings a jaunty, folksy tune, while the piano, as ever, provides piquant detail—the tolling bell, the blithely skipping child, and the hullabaloo as the bell ‘escapes’.
from notes by Richard Wigmore © 2011