Gabriel Seidl’s allegorical poem
Die Uhr may seem coyly whimsical to us today. But Loewe’s 1852 setting has a charming delicacy of touch, darkening for a moment of impressive solemnity as the poet imagines the clock stopping for good (‘Doch stände sie einmal stille’). The composer recalled that when he sang the song for the first time in public, a small boy in the audience listened attentively and then sighed: ‘I wish I could have a clock like that too.’
from notes by Richard Wigmore © 2011
