27 minute read
“Sweet Stillness” - February 24 & 25
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Karim Sulayman (tenor) Danbi Um (violin) Juho Pohjonen (piano) SWEET STILLNESS
Thursday, February 24, 2022 I 7:30 p.m. Kimbell Art Museum
HANDEL “Süße Stille, sanfte Quelle,” HWV 205 RAMEAU Selection from Suite in A Minor, RCT 5
RAVEL Tzigane MASSENET Élégie
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS “Silent Noon” from The House of Life “How Cold the Wind Doth Blow”
intermission
SCHUBERT “Ständchen” from Schwanengesang, D. 957 Im Abendrot, D. 799 Die Forelle, D. 550 An den Mond, D. 193 An die Laute, D. 905
KREISLER Viennese Rhapsodic Fantasietta STRAUSS “Morgen!” op. 27, no. 4
American Songbook
HARBURG I DUKE “April in Paris”
PORTER “I Love Paris”
PIAF | LOUIGUY “La Vie en rose”
Friday, February 25, 2022 I 8:00 p.m. The Post at River East
Selections to be announced from the stage.
KARIM SULAYMAN tenor
Lebanese-American tenor Karim Sulayman has garnered international attention as a sophisticated and versatile artist, consistently praised for his sensitive and intelligent musicianship, riveting stage presence, and beautiful voice. The 2019 Best Classical Solo Vocal GRAMMY® Award winner, he continues to earn acclaim for his programming and recording projects, while regularly performing on the world’s stages in opera, orchestral concerts, recital, and chamber music.
Current and recent season highlights include engagements at Carnegie Hall, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and the Ravinia Festival, as well as with the Chicago, Pittsburgh, and National symphony orchestras, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, and performing leading roles with Drottningholms Slottsteater, Houston Grand Opera, Florentine Opera, New York City Opera, and Boston Lyric Opera. Future engagements include the world premiere of David T. Little’s monodrama, What Belongs to You, written for Karim, and Alarm Will Sound, based on Garth Greenwell’s acclaimed novel.
Karim won the 2019 GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for his debut solo album, Songs of Orpheus. His second solo album, Where Only Stars Can Hear Us, a program of Schubert Lieder with fortepianist Yi-heng Yang, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart and has received international critical acclaim, including being named “Critic’s Choice” by Opera News.
Karim has been featured on PBS Great Performances, and he appears on the second season of Dickinson on Apple TV+. In November 2016, Karim created a social experiment/performance art piece called I Trust You, designed to build bridges in a divided political climate. A video version of this experiment went “viral” on the internet and was honored as a prizewinner at the My Hero Film Festival. Karim has been invited to give talks and hold open forums with student and adult groups about inclusion, empathy, healing from racism, and activism through the arts.
DANBI UM violin
Praised by The Strad as an “utterly dazzling” artist, violinist Danbi Um captivates audiences with her virtuosity, individual sound, and interpretive sensitivity. She is a Menuhin International Violin Competition silver medalist, winner of the 2018 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, and a recent top prizewinner of the Naumburg International Violin Competition.
Danbi made her concerto debut in 2014 with the Music Academy of the West’s Festival Orchestra, conducted by Joshua Weilerstein. She has since performed with the Israel Symphony, Auckland Philharmonic, and Vermont Symphony. In 2018, she made her New York recital debut at Lincoln Center, presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and has since appeared in recital and chamber music performances in such venues as the Kennedy Center, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Harris Theatre in Chicago, Wigmore Hall in London, and at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Um is an artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Festival appearances have included those at Marlboro, Ravinia, Yellow Barn, Moab, Seattle, Caramoor, and Music@Menlo, and chamber music collaborators have included Anthony Marwood, Vadim Gluzman, Pamela Frank, Cho-Liang Lin, David Finckel, David Shifrin, Wu Han, and Gilbert Kalish.
Recent and upcoming highlights include solo appearances with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, a national tour with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, duo programs with guitarist Jiji, and performances at premiere national series including the Cliburn, Wolf Trap, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess Concerts.
Born in 1990 in Seoul, South Korea, Danbi began violin lessons at age 3. She moved to the United States in 2000 to study at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she earned a bachelor’s degree. She also holds an Artist Diploma from Indiana University. Her teachers have included Shmuel Ashkenasi, Joseph Silverstein, Jaime Laredo, and Hagai Shaham. She is a winner of Astral Artists’ National Auditions. She plays a 1683 “ex-Petschek” Nicolo Amati violin, on loan from a private collection.
JUHO POHJONEN piano
Finnish pianist Juho Pohjonen is regarded as one of today’s most exciting and unique instrumentalists. He performs widely in Europe, Asia, and North America, collaborating with symphony orchestras and playing in recital and chamber settings. This season, he performs Daniel Bjarnason’s concerto Processions with the Helsinki Philharmonic with the composer at the podium. Additional highlights include performances with the Colorado Symphony and Minnesota Orchestras, appearances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center—with whom he has a long-standing relationship, chamber projects for Parlance Chamber Concerts and Cliburn Concerts, and recitals in Helsinki and at the Vancouver Recital Society.
Juho’s illustrious resume of performances reveals a musician in demand internationally. He has appeared as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Danish National Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra of London, Finnish Radio Symphony & Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestras, and with the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York, among others. He has collaborated with today’s foremost conductors, including Marin Alsop, Marek Janowski, Fabien Gabel, Kirill Karabits, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Pinchas Zukerman. Notable recitals have included Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and Wigmore Hall, and in Antwerp, Hamburg, St. Petersburg, and Warsaw.
His most recent recording with cellist Inbal Segev features cello sonatas by Chopin and Grieg, and Schumann’s Fantasiestücke. His previous recordings include Plateaux on Dacapo Records and Maps and Legends on the Music@Menlo Live series. He is a member of the Sibelius Trio, which released a recording on Yarlung Records in honor of Finland’s 1917 centennial of independence. Juho launched MyPianist in 2019, an AI-based iOS app that provides interactive piano accompaniment to musicians everywhere. Designed and programmed by the pianist himself, the app acts as a “virtual pianist” for musicians looking to hone their skills or new materials.
Juho was selected by Sir Andras Schiff as the winner of the 2009 Klavier Festival Ruhr Scholarship, and has won other prizes at international and Finnish competitions.
How rare it is to experience a concert where pianist, singer, and violinist join together in glorious partnership! On this program, Karim Sulayman, tenor, Danbi Um, violin, and Juho Pohjonen, piano, will traverse a broad expanse of musical time, expressing separately and together every emotion of the human heart.
Süße Stille, sanfte Quelle, HWV 205
George Friedrich Handel (1685–1759)
George Friedrich Handel composed nine arias between 1724 and 1726, on poems by an admired colleague, Barthold Heinrich Brockes. These arias reflect the fascination in the High Baroque with the interplay of poetry and music. Brockes’ fame today comes primarily from a text known as the Brockes Passion, a meditation on Christ’s Crucifixion that Handel set to music magnificently in 1712.
Süße Stille, sanfte Quelle, expresses a reverential sensitivity to nature characteristic of the budding Enlightenment. Framed in standard “song form” (opening section, contrasting section, return to opening section), the song beautifully interweaves the vocal line, violin embellishment, and keyboard accompaniment.
Selection from Suite in A Minor, RCT 5
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764)
Moving from Handel to the French master Jean-Philippe Rameau, we dip into the refined style of the French Baroque. Here is music fit for the ear of a king, although Rameau’s actual career developed outside the Bourbon court. Rameau’s compositions include a long list of operas and ballets, but his four books of keyboard music compiled across many years command our respect too. A master of the clavecin (French term for harpsichord), Rameau enjoyed using figurations that suggest the arpeggiated textures of the lute. For his lyrical lines, Rameau used embellishments to ennoble rather than decorate.
The French approach to instrumental dance suites is highly flexible. The popular core dances (Allemande, Courante, Saraband, Gigue) usually appear, amplified by the Menuet, Rigaudon, Rondeau, and Musette, as well as other pieces. Many of Rameau’s movements received expressive, even frivolous titles like La Joyeuse or Les Tourbillons (Whirlwinds).
In this suite, Rameau explored the challenges of the harpsichord, including techniques that give the impression of using three hands at the keyboard. The suite concludes with a style of theme and multiple variations known as the “double.”
Tzigane
Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
French artistic fascination with the “exotic” is well documented in iconic examples like Gauguin’s glorious paintings done in Tahiti and Bizet’s quintessential Spanish opera Carmen. Maurice Ravel also embraced Spanish themes (Bolero, Rhapsodie espagnole). He also was drawn to the culture of the Roma (gypsies, tzigane) whose origins and fate are complex and impactful, even today. The Roma people long caught the ear and eye of European painters, poets, and composers; thus, Ravel’s desire to replicate the color of gypsy music surprised no one. How he framed the work, though, did.
The piece opens with an extensive, mesmerizing passage for solo violin. When the piano finally enters, its timbre surprises the listener’s ear. Initially the piano and violin parts intertwine delicately. Then, the two forces pull apart, only to embrace again, first delighting in sheer melody and then launching into a furious dance.
Tzigane often is heard in a later version for violin and orchestra, but Ravel conceived it for violin and piano. He dedicated the composition to Jelly d’Arányi, great-niece of the celebrated violinist Joseph Joachim (which reminds us that Ravel’s music, however neoclassical, is rooted in Romanticism’s outpouring of emotions). It has become a standard showpiece for the violin and represents well the versatility of its composer who, while unrivaled in his compositional clarity, nonetheless stood ready to burst forth with passion.
Élégie
Jules Massenet (1842–1912)
Jules Massenet is remembered chiefly for two operas: Manon and Werther. Of his chamber pieces, audiences are likely to be presented his ravishing Méditation for violin, based on a melody from his opera Thaïs.
Here, though, we find another work of great beauty. Élégie (1872) sets a poem by Louis Gallet, a prolific writer favored by Massenet, Saint-Saëns, and Bizet. Although brief, the poem poignantly contrasts Spring’s freshness with the loss of lover’s hope. Marked lento espressivo, Massenet’s melody pulls at our heartstrings. Heard in many different arrangements, the Élégie became a favorite of early recording superstars like Caruso and Gigli.
“Silent Noon” from The House of Life “How Cold the Wind Doth Blow” Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
In 1903, Ralph Vaughan Williams published a cycle of six songs under the title The House of Life, setting poems by Daniel Rossetti. Rossetti, brother of the poetess Christine Rossetti (known for In the Bleak Midwinter), and his brother William became seminal figures in the mid 19th-century group of artists known as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Their distinct style of poetry and painting (inspired by Flemish and Italian Renaissance art) brought renewed focus to the forms and Classical allusions that shaped our Western art tradition.
A half century later, Vaughn Williams’ music exhibited many of the same qualities as the Pre-Raphaelites. He was a prolific songwriter, although his most popular work is the crystalline tone poem The Lark Ascending. Songs, though, allowed Vaughan Williams to create intense portraits that could be linked into cycles with engaging, even piercing, narratives (On Wenlock Edge).
“Silent Noon,” the second song of the cycle, has taken on a life of its own due to its rivetingly beautiful melody expressing the first words, “Your hand lies open in the long, fresh grass.” Images from Rossetti’s poem build gently as the composer draws us into the “inarticulate hour when twofold silence was the hour of love.”
“How Cold the Wind Doth Blow” shows us another side of Vaughan Williams’ artistry. Extracted from a 1912 publication called Folk Songs from Sussex, this song gently embellishes a folk tune with a violin countermelody, a popular way of arranging traditional tunes for concert settings. Vaughan Williams’ keen interest in folk music was shared by others of his generation like Bartók and Kodály. With an activist spirit, they strove bravely to gather, analyze, and protect the precious heritage of folk music threatened by modern technology and patterns of immigration from the villages to the cities.
“Ständchen” from Schwanengesang, D. 957 Im Abendrot, D. 799 Die Forelle, D. 550 An den Mond, D. 193 An die Laute, D. 905
Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
Franz Schubert, arguably the greatest composer of German art song (Lieder), produced an astonishing number of songs in his short life (in excess of 500). Songs have always mattered to composers, but around 1800, a confluence of fine poets and excellent composers caused an explosion of song across Europe, with German-speaking lands at the epicenter.
Ständchen is the fourth song from a cycle of 14 poems called Schwanengesang (Swan Song) written by Schubert in the last year of his life. Ständchen (text by Louis Rellstab) portrays a lover urging his sweetheart not to fear, but to come to him. Its melody is so beguiling that Franz Liszt later created a transcription of the song for solo piano.
Im Abendrot (In Evening Red), composed in 1825, is one of c. 50 devotional songs by Schubert. It uses a short poem by Karl Lappe wherein the light of the setting sun reveals the trustworthy nature of the Creator and Creation. The simple, hymnlike texture veils the vocal prowess needed by a singer to deliver this beautiful song.
Die Forelle (The Trout) is an early song (1817) and sets a narrative poem by Christian Schubart wherein an onlooker observes a dishonest fisherman stirring the bed of a brook to disable a beautiful trout that otherwise outwitted him. The enthusiastic reception of this song led Schubert to use its melody in his Piano Quintet which goes by the name “Die Forelle.”
An den Monde (To the Moon, 1815) is the first of two songs Schubert wrote with this title. Set to a poem by Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty, a mourning lover beseeches the moon to shine a light on the places his beloved used to sit and listen to the brook. The undulating accompaniment, reminiscent of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata,” sets a melancholic mood for the yearning melody.
Finally, An die Laute (To a Lute, 1827) employs a short poem by Johann Rochlitz wherein a lute helps convey through the breeze a young man’s secret love. The accompaniment unsurprisingly imitates the arpeggiation of the lute’s harmonies.
Viennese Rhapsodic Fantasietta
Fritz Kreisler (1875–1962)
remains popular due to his instinctive understanding of the violin’s beauty and prowess. Easily able to compose music driven by technical gymnastics, he had a greater love for the compelling possibilities of Viennese dance rhythms, especially the ubiquitous waltz.
Kreisler’s musical pedigree was impeccable: a true Wunderkind, he survived that complicated stage of life and developed successfully as a mature artist. He was driven, though, from his beloved homeland in the years leading up to the Second World War and ultimately ended up in the United States.
The Viennese Rhapsodic Fantasietta was a late work (1948) and accordingly conveys through lovely melodies and ebullient rhythms his nostalgia for Old Vienna as it was before the ravages of two world wars. Virtuosity plays a big role in the piece, too, beginning with its rhapsodic opening and the predominance of double-stops. But virtuosity never overshadows the piece as the composer knits its sumptuous melodies in waltz rhythm into a mosaic of loveliness.
“Morgen!” op. 27, no. 4
Richard Strauss (1864–1949)
Bearing a name often confused with the father-son masters of the waltz (Johann Strauss Sr. and Jr.), Richard Strauss created an astonishing musical legacy over a long and fruitful career. Even the effect of this single song, “Morgen!,” the last of four songs composed in 1894 as a wedding gift for his wife Pauline, causes us to hold our breath and ask: “Could anything more gorgeous be composed?”
Morgen sets a text by Strauss’ Scottish contemporary John Henry Mackay (1864–1933) who was raised in Germany and thus mastered the German language. Written initially for voice and piano, the song gained its distinctive counterpart for solo violin when Strauss transformed it into an orchestral work. In a very real sense, the shimmering lines of the violin convey the poem as vividly as the words intoned by the singer.
The composer’s own love of “Morgen!” is evidenced by how often he played it, especially to accompany a favorite soprano, Elizabeth Schumann. In a 1951 article in Etude magazine, Schumann explained the mutual interpretation the two forged by stating that the words “must follow each other, evenly, just as identical pearls follow each other in a necklace.”
The song begins with a ravishing solo for the violin that creates a partnership with the singer’s melody. The vocal line enters ever so gently, steadily, almost imperceptibly developing into a melody so soaring and beautiful it cannot be described. The text bespeaks a love filled with an intense hope that transcends earthly conditions. “Morgen!” has become a signature song for many vocalists and stands as a crown jewel in the vocal repertoire.
April in Paris
Music by Vernon Duke (1903–1969). Lyrics by Yip Harburg (1896–1981).
The introspective song April in Paris, while about Paris, has its roots in New York, and represents the stellar collaboration between composer Vernon Duke and lyricist Yip Harburg, remembered for all the songs in The Wizard of Oz.
Duke (known as Vladimir Dukelsky before passing through Ellis Island) had his formal training in tsarist Russia, but he fled in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution and ultimately landed in New York in 1922. There, he joined the community of stellar émigrés who were changing America’s artistic landscape. Duke’s other top hits include Taking a Chance on Love and Autumn in New York.
April in Paris has been given iconic interpretations by artists like Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Sarah Vaughan. As with any classic song, April in Paris can be rendered in many styles and invites each performer to paint Harburg’s visually rich poem and Duke’s haunting melody afresh.
I Love Paris
Cole Porter (1891–1964)
Cole Porter mastered both word and music in his prolific career as a songwriter—a talent rare in the realm of songwriting. Born in Indiana, Porter applied his classical training to musical theater. Seeking adventure and bigger success, he moved to Paris in 1917 and maintained a luxury apartment there, surrounded by exceptional artists who were reshaping styles in music, painting, dance, and fashion.
I Love Paris was written, however, not during his Parisian years, but later in his career after strings of hit songs for musicals in New York and films for Hollywood. It remains one of Porter’s most beloved songs.
La Vie en rose
Music by Louiguy (1916–1991). Lyrics by Édith Piaf (1915–1963).
The program ends with one of the most poignant songs ever written: La Vie en rose. The music was written by Louiguy, the pen name of composer Louis Guglielmi. The song, though, is associated far more with its original performer and the author of its lyrics, Édith Piaf. Piaf was a prolific songwriter and strong manager of her own career. Her personal life was filled with difficulties and illness. Still, Piaf’s haunting voice, her diminutive stature and passionate expressions, and her poignant story shape interpretations of this song to our own day. Her spirit stands before us whenever we hear La Vie en rose.
Süße Stille, sanfte Quelle
Text by Barthold Henrich Brockes Music by Georg Friedrich Handel
Süße Stille, sanfte Quelle Ruhiger Gelassenheit! Selbst die Seele wird erfreut, [Da, in deiner Süßigkeit, Ich mir hier nach dieser Zeit Voll mühsel’ger Eitelkeit], Jene Ruh vor Augen stelle, Die uns ewig ist bereit.
Sweet silence, soft springs
Translation by Hayden Muhl
Sweet silence, soft springs Peaceful calm! The soul itself will be gladdened, When I, after this time Of laborious futility, this peace I will see that awaits us in eternity.
Élégie
Text by Louis Gallet Music by Jules Massenet
Ô doux printemps d’autrefois, vertes saisons, vous avez fui pour toujours! Je ne vois plus le ciel bleu; Je n’entends plus les chants joyeux des oiseaux!
En emportant mon bonheur, Ô bien-amé, tu t’en es allé! Et c’est en vain que revient le printemps!
Oui! Sans retour, avec toi, le gai soleil, Les jours riants sont partis! Comme en mon coeur tout est sombre et glacé, tout est flétri pour toujours!
Elegy
Translation by Richard Stokes
O sweet Spring of yesteryear, green seasons, you have fled forever! I no longer see the blue sky, I no longer hear the joyous songs of the birds!
You have fled, my love, and with you has fled my happiness. And it is in vain that the spring returns!
For along with you, The cheerful sun, the laughing days have gone! As my heart is dark and frozen, so all is withered for evermore!
Silent Noon
Text by Dante Gabriel Rossetti Music by Ralph Vaughan Williams
Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass, The finger-points look through like rosy blooms: Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms ‘Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass. All round our nest, far as the eye can pass, Are golden kingcup fields with silver edge Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn hedge. ‘Tis visible silence, still as the hour glass. Deep in the sunsearched growths the dragon-fly Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky: So this winged hour is dropt to us from above. Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower, This close-companioned inarticulate hour When twofold silence was the song of love.
How cold the wind doth blow
Traditional text Music by Ralph Vaughan Williams
How cold the wind doth blow Dear love How heavy fall the drops Of rain I never had but one true love And in the Greenwoods He was slain I’ll do as much for my true love As ever in my path of flames I will seek and mourn Upon his grave Dear love For twelve month and a day When these twelve was gone And passed The ghost began to speak And then asked: “Why sit you here All on my grave? Sweetheart, and will you not Let me sleep?” What is it you want of me Sweetheart One kiss, one kiss From your snowy white lips Is all I crave from you Dear love My lips they are so cold as clay My breath smells heavy And strong If you were to kiss My snowy white lips Sweetheart Your time would not be long.
Ständchen
Text by Ludwig Rellstab Music by Franz Schubert
Leise flehen meine Lieder Durch die Nacht zu Dir; In den stillen Hain hernieder, Liebchen, komm’ zu mir! Flüsternd schlanke Wipfel rauschen In des Mondes Licht; Des Verräters feindlich Lauschen Fürchte, Holde, nicht. Hörst die Nachtigallen schlagen? Ach! sie flehen Dich, Mit der Töne süssen Klagen Flehen sie für mich. Sie verstehn des Busens Sehnen, Kennen Liebesschmerz, Rühren mit den Silbertönen Jedes weiche Herz. Lass auch Dir die Brust bewegen, Liebchen, höre mich! Bebend harr’ ich Dir entgegen! Komm’, beglücke mich!
Serenade
Translation by Richard Wigmore
Softly my songs plead through the night to you; down into the silent grove, beloved, come to me! Slender treetops whisper and rustle in the moonlight; my darling, do not fear that the hostile betrayer will overhear us. Do you not hear the nightingales call? Ah, they are imploring you; with their sweet, plaintive songs they are imploring for me. They understand the heart’s yearning, they know the pain of love; with their silvery notes they touch every tender heart. Let your heart, too, be moved, beloved, hear me! Trembling, I await you! Come, make me happy!
Die Forelle
In einem Bächlein helle, Da schoß in froher Eil’ Die launische Forelle Vorüber wie ein Pfeil. Ich stand an dem Gestade Und sah in süßer Ruh Des muntern Fischleins Bade Im klaren Bächlein zu. Ein Fischer mit der Rute Wohl an dem Ufer stand, Und sah’s mit kaltem Blute,
The trout
Translation by Richard Wigmore
In a limpid brook the capricious trout in joyous haste darted by like an arrow. I stood on the bank in blissful peace, watching the lively fish swim in the clear brook. An angler with his rod stood on the bank cold-bloodedly watching
Wie sich das Fischlein wand. So lang dem Wasser Helle, So dacht ich, nicht gebricht, So fängt er die Forelle Mit seiner Angel nicht. Doch endlich ward dem Diebe Die Zeit zu lang. Er macht Das Bächlein tückisch trübe, Und eh ich es gedacht, So zuckte seine Rute, Das Fischlein zappelt dran, Und ich mit regem Blute Sah die Betrogene an. the fish’s contortions. As long as the water is clear, I thought, he won’t catch the trout with his rod. But at length the thief grew impatient. Cunningly he made the brook cloudy, and in an instant his rod quivered, and the fish struggled on it. And I, my blood boiling, looked on at the cheated creature.
An den Mond
Geuss, lieber Mond, geuss deine Silberflimmer Durch dieses Buchengrün, Wo Phantasien und Traumgestalten Immer vor mir vorüberfliehn. Enthülle dich, dass ich die Stätte finde, Wo oft mein Mädchen sass, Und oft, im Wehn des Buchbaums und der Linde, Der goldnen Stadt vergass. Enthülle dich, dass ich des Strauchs mich freue, Der Kühlung ihr gerauscht, Und einen Kranz auf jeden Anger streue, Wo sie den Bach belauscht. Dann, lieber Mond, dann nimm den Schleier wieder, Und traur um deinen Freund, Und weine durch den Wolkenflor hernieder, Wie dein Verlassner weint!
To the Moon
Translation by Richard Wigmore
Beloved moon, shed your silver radiance through these green beeches, where fancies and dreamlike images forever flit before me. Unveil yourself, that I may find the spot where my beloved sat, where often, in the swaying branches of the beech and lime, she forgot the gilded town. Unveil yourself, that I may delight in the whispering bushes that cooled her, and lay a wreath on that meadow where she listened to the brook. Then, beloved moon, take your veil once more, and mourn for your friend. Weep down through the hazy clouds, as the one you have forsaken weeps.
An die Laute
Text by Johann Rochlitz Music by Franz Schubert
Leiser, leiser, kleine Laute, Flüstre, was ich dir vertraute, Dort zu jenem Fenster hin! Wie die Wellen sanfter Lüfte Mondenglanz und Blumen düfte, Send es der Gebieterin! Neidisch sind der Nachbars Söhne, Und im Fenster jener Schöne Flimmert noch ein einsam Licht. Drum noch leiser, kleine Laute: Dich vernehme die Vertraute, Nachbarn aber, Nachbarn nicht!
To the Lute
Translation by Richard Wigmore
Play more softly, little lute, whisper what I secretly told you to that window there! Like the ripple of gentle breezes, like moonlight and the scent of flowers, convey your secret to my mistress. The neighbour’s sons are envious, and at the fair lady’s window a solitary lamp flickers. So play still more softly, little lute: that my beloved may hear you, but the neighbours – no, not the neighbours!
Morgen!
Text by John Henry Mackay Music by Richard Strauss
Tomorrow!
Translation by Richard Stokes
Und morgen wird die Sonne wieder scheinen Und auf dem Wege, den ich gehen werde, Wird uns, die Glücklichen, sie wieder einen Inmitten dieser sonnenatmenden Erde ... Und zu dem Strand, dem weiten, wogenblauen, Werden wir still und langsam niedersteigen, Stumm werden wir uns in die Augen schauen, Und auf uns sinkt des Glückes stummes Schweigen ... And tomorrow the sun will shine again And on the path that I shall take, It will unite us, happy ones, again, Amid this same sun-breathing earth ... And to the shore, broad, blue-waved, We shall quietly and slowly descend, Speechless we shall gaze into each other’s eyes, And the speechless silence of bliss shall fall on us ...
Translations ©Richard Wigmore, author of Schubert: The Complete Songs Texts, published by Schirmer Books, provided courtesy of Oxford Lieder (www.oxfordlieder.co.uk) Translations ©Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder, published by Faber, provided courtesty of Oxford Lieder (www.oxfordlieder.co.uk)
April in Paris
Lyrics by Yip Harburg Music by Vernon Duke
April’s in the air But here in Paris April wears a different gown You can see her waltzing down The street The tang of wine is in the air I’m drunk with all the happiness That spring can give Never dreamed it could be So exciting to live
Till April in Paris, chestnuts in blossom Holiday tables under the trees April in Paris, this is a feeling That no one can ever reprise
I never knew the charm of spring I never met it face to face I never knew my heart could sing I never missed a warm embrace
Till April in Paris Whom can I run to? What have you done to my heart?
I Love Paris
Lyrics and music by Cole Porter
Every time I look down on this timeless town Whether blue or gray be her skies Whether loud be her cheers, or whether soft be her tears More and more do I realize that...
I love Paris in the spring time I love Paris in the fall I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles
I love Paris every moment Every moment of the year I love Paris, why oh why do I love Paris Because my love is here
La vie en rose
Lyrics by Edith Piaf. Music by Louiguy.
Des yeux qui font baisser les miens A gaze that make me lower my own Un rire qui se perd sur sa bouche A laugh that is lost on his lips Voila le portrait sans retouches That is the un-retouched portrait De l’homme auquel j’appartiens Of the man to whom I belong
Il est entré dans mon coeur Une part de bonheur Dont je connais la cause He speaks words of love to me They are every day words and they do something to me
Et, dès que je l’aperçois Alors je sens en moi Mon coeur qui bat It’s only him for me And me for him, for life He told me, he swore to me, for life
Des nuits d’amour à plus en finir Endless nights of love Un grand bonheur qui prend sa place Bring great happiness Les ennuis, les chagrins, s’effacent The pain and bothers fade away Heureux, heureux à mourir Happy, so happy I could die
C’est lui pour moi Moi pour lui dans la vie Il me l’a dit, l’a jure pour la vie He speaks words of love to me They are every day words And they do something to me
Et, dès que je l’apercois Alors je sens en moi Mon coeur qui bat As soon as I notice him I feel inside me My heart beating
