Posted in Classical, Lieder on Sep 20th, 2009 No Comments »
Eight years ago, 8 October 2001, I was at a concert given by the mezzo-soprano Alice Coote and the pianist Julius Drake at Wigmore Hall, London. She was just starting out on her career then, as one of the BBC’s sponsored Young Artists. I’m not up to speed on where she lies in the current firmament of classical sopranos, but in a recent recording of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, with Mark Elder and the Halle Orchestra, she’s a radiant Angel.
Schumann’s Meine Rose is one of the most popular encores for sopranos, and Alice Coote sang it at the end of her recital. The recital was broadcast by the BBC and this is from my recording of it then. I’ve left in the applause and the announcer’s voice over at the end.
‘At your feet, I would like, to you as to a flower, silently pour out my soul, though I do not see your blossoming joy.’
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Posted in Classical, Lieder on May 24th, 2009 No Comments »
Songs wera a bit of a sideline for Beethoven. But this is one of his best. It is to a, frankly, rather crappy poem by Friedrich von Matthison. It’s just as well as Beethoven rides rather roughshod over the words. He wasn’t Schubert after all. Nonetheless the insistent calling of the loved one’s name - Adelaide -at the end of each verse in a five note rising phrase is heart rending.
The lover sees her face everywhere around him, in the springtime, in the light of the setting sun as it catches the snows on the mountain top, in the stars in the night sky. He imagines a flower growing out of his tomb, its roots in the ashes of his heart, and blossoming: Adelaide.
This is Jussi Bjoerling, recorded in 1939.
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For my ‘Morning Has Broken’ Anthology. A Spring Morning - here in a slight but charming song by Gustav Mahler. Piano trills echo the birdsong in the branches of the linden tree.
‘The linden tree taps at the window, branches heavy with blossom; Get Up! Get Up! Why do you lie there dreaming? The sun is up already! Get Up! Get Up!’
Lucia Popp sings this delightfully, sunlight in her voice, accompanied by Geoffrey Parsons.
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Posted in Classical, Lieder on Dec 27th, 2008 No Comments »
Now Christmas is over, and it’s officially midwinter, here’s something to warm the spirit. It is Richard Strauss’s song Winterweihe - Winter Dedication.
‘In these winter days, when light is veiled, let us carry in our hearts, and dedicate to each other, the flame of that other light which fills our being………that tenderly entwines our souls…….let us dedicate our days and nights to the blessings of love.’
It’s a bit of a soppy poem, but Strauss makes magic of it, particularly in his orchestral version of it, as here. The singer is the incomparable Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, in a famous recording from 1969, with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by George Szell.
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The three wise men, on their journey from the East, stop at each village and ask the way to Bethlehem. No-one knows. So they follow the golden star, that shines so sweetly in the sky.
‘The star came to rest above Joseph’s house; they went inside. The ox lowed, the child cried, and the three holy kings sang.’
In his orchestral accompaniment Richard Strauss has the orchestra mimic the sound of the cock crowing, the cattle lowing and the child crying. At least a third of the song is taken up with an orchestral postlude, after the singing has ceased. Here in a long lovely melody Strauss captures the joy of the three kings as they kneel before the sleeping Christ child. It is one of his finest and most joyful songs.
The singer, her voice perfect for the song, is Gundula Janovitz, with the Academy of London conducted by Richard Stamp.
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I posted earlier Schumann’s lovely setting of this shortest of Goethe’s poems. Here, written a quarter of a century earlier, is Schubert’s. Schumann finds a poignant, personal sense of loss, as if in death, in this yearning for rest at the day’s end. Schubert’s understanding is universal, less personal. He invokes the peace we all can find, as the day, and life, closes, in nature and in God.
‘Peace lies over all the hills; in the treetops there is barely a stir. Birds are hushed in the wood; wait just a little while, soon you too will be at rest.’
The singer is Karl Erb, the greatest of all interpreters of Schubert’s songs.
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This lovely song by Clara Schumann was offered as a gift to her husband, Robert. As a song it is worthy to stand alongside the best that he wrote. Morning has broken as a clear, sunlit day. The sun, her lover, awakens her, just as it might open the petals on the blossom.
‘I desire only to rest upon your breast, and there transfigure you with the sunlight’s shining joy.’
It is touchingly sung by Geraldine McGreevy.
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One of the most famous, and loveliest, of Richard Strauss’s songs. Here is the last verse.
‘Dream, dream, flower of my love, of the quiet, blessed night, when the flower of his love changed forever this world into a heaven for me.’
It is beautifully sung by Gundula Janovitz.
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Here is setting of Goethe’s short poem - the second with this title and one which Schubert also set early in his career - as an addition to my Going to Sleep anthology. It is the version by Hugo Wolf. Here are the words.
“You who are from heaven, who assuage all grief and suffering, and fill him who is doubly wretched, doubly with delight, ah! I am weary of striving! To what end is this pain and joy? Sweet peace, enter my heart.”
In the dissonant chords behind the vocal there is mental pain and anguish, from which the singer yearns for rest.
The singer is Mitsuko Shirai, accompanied by Hartmut Holl.
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The third of Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs is ‘Going to Sleep’. The allusion to death, strong in the fourth and final song, is absent here. It is the freedom of sleep that is yearned for, untrammeled by the cares of the day, where the spirit can enter the magic world of dreams.
‘The day has wearied me, and now I long to be enfolded in the starry night like a tired child. Hands, leave off your work; brow, forget your thoughts. All my senses long to lose themselves in slumber. And my soul, on freed wings, yearns to soar at its will so to live a thousandfold more intensely under the magic arc of the night.’
It is sung here by Jessye Norman. In an earlier post I wrote about her interpretation of these last songs of Richard Strauss. This is what I said about her singing of this third song. ‘In…..“Beim Schlafengehen” there is a quite magical passage where, after the lovely violin interlude, she follows the line of the melody in almost imperceptible gradations, starting pianissimo then drawing her voice out into a crescendo, then retreating into head voice before building up the crescendo.’ It is unsurpassed.
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