Robert Schumann 1810–1856
Compact Disc 1
Das Paradies und die Peri Oratorio in three parts · Text by Emil Flechsig and the composer after Thomas Moore’s Lalla Rookh Setting: mystical Orient
Peri......................................................................MAGDALÉNA HAJÓSSYOVÁ Angel.......................................................................................MARGA SCHIML Tenor .............................................................................EBERHARD BÜCHNER Gazna/Bass .................................................HERMANN CHRISTIAN POLSTER Young Man .................................................................................KLAUS KÖNIG Tenor (2).............................................................................CHRISTIAN VOGEL Man/Baritone ....................................................................SIEGFRIED LORENZ Maiden ..................................................................................CAROLA NOSSEK Mezzo-soprano/Alto ............................................................ROSEMARIE LANG Quartet Soprano .................................................................................CAROLA NOSSEK Mezzo-soprano/Alto ............................................................ROSEMARIE LANG Tenor ..................................................................................CHRISTIAN VOGEL Baritone/Bass..............................................HERMANN CHRISTIAN POLSTER
57’33
Part 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9
Vor Edens Tor im Morgenprangen (Alto) Wie glücklich sie wandeln, die sel’gen Geister (Peri) Der hehre Engel, der die Pforte des Lichts bewacht (Tenor) – Dir, Kind des Stamms, schön, doch voll Sünden (Angel) Wo find’ ich sie? Wo blüht, wo liegt die Gabe (Peri) So sann sie nach und schwang die Flügel (Tenor) – O süßes Land! O Götterpracht! (Quartet) Doch seine Ströme sind jetzt rot (Chorus) Und einsam steht ein Jüngling noch (Tenor/Chorus) – Komm, kühner Held, und huld’ge mir (Gazna) – Du schlugst des Landes Bürger (Young Man) Weh, weh, weh, er fehlte das Ziel (Chorus) Die Peri sah das Mal der Wunde (Tenor) – Sei dies, mein Geschenk, willkommen dorten (Peri/Quartet)
4’45 2’44 1’55 2’27 1’16 3’11 2’17
2’36 7’40
Rundfunkchor Leipzig chorus master Jörg-Peter Weigle Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester Leipzig
Wolf-Dieter Hauschild
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3
Part 2 10 Die Peri tritt mit schüchterner Gebärde vor Edens Tor (Tenor) – Gern grüßen wir, die so gegangen (Angel/Chorus) 11 Ihr erstes Himmelshoffen schwand (Tenor) – Hervor aus den Wässern geschwind (Chorus) – Ach Eden, ach Eden (Peri) 12 Fort streift von hier das Kind der Lüfte (Tenor) – Für euren ersten Fall (Peri) 13 Die Peri weint (Tenor) – Denn in der Trän’ ist Zaubermacht (Quartet) 14 Im Waldesgrün am stillen See (Alto) – Ach, einen Tropfen nur aus der See (Young Man) 15 Verlassener Jüngling (Mezzo-soprano) – Doch sieh, wer naht dort leise schleichend (Tenor) – Du hier? (Young Man) 16 O lass mich von der Luft durchdringen (Maiden) – Sie wankt – sie sinkt (Tenor) 17 Schlaf nun und ruhe in Träumen voll Duft (Peri/Chorus)
Compact Disc 2 3’10
Part 3
3’25
1 2
2’55
3 4 5
2’48 2’58 4’24
6
4’19 4’38
7 8 9
4
37’42
Schmücket die Stufen zu Allahs Thron (Chorus) Dem Sang von ferne lauschend (Tenor) – Noch nicht! Treu war die Maid (Angel) Verstoßen! Verschlossen aufs neu das Goldportal! (Peri) Jetzt sank des Abends gold’ner Schein (Bass) Und wie sie niederwärts sich schwingt (Tenor) – Peri, ist’s wahr, dass du in den Himmel willst? (Quartet) – Mit ihrer Schwestern Worten wächst ihr Schmerz (Baritone) Hinab zu jenem Sonnentempel! (Peri) – Sie schwebt herab im frohen Hoffen (Tenor) – Doch horch, wie Versperruf zum Beten (Mezzo-soprano) – Und was fühlt er, der sünd’ge Mann (Tenor) – ’s war eine Zeit, du selig Kind (Man) O heil’ge Tränen inn’ger Reue (Quartet/Chorus) Es fällt ein Tropfen aufs Land Ägypten (Peri) – Und sieh, demütig betend kniet der Mann (Tenor/Chorus) Freud’, ew’ge Freude, mein Werk ist getan (Peri) – Willkommen, willkommen unter den Frommen! (Chorus)
3’18 2’59 4’28 3’14 3’34
6’47
3’13 5’26 4’44
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Das Paradies und die Peri: Creation of a new musical genre When, in the spring of 1843, Robert Schumann set about composing his first large choraI symphonic work Paradise and the Peri, he clearly had something quite out of the ordinary in mind. For all his earnest involvement in orchestral and chamber music immediately prior to this, a powerful operatic yearning had taken hold of him, and he even spoke later of his ‘artist’s matins and vespers’. It is to this hankering of Schumann’s – which would not be fulfilled for some time – that we owe the very beautiful and compelling work, Paradise and the Peri. It sets a poem by the Irish poet Thomas Moore (1779–1852), which enjoyed popularity at the beginning of the last century. The tale forming its framework tells of a journey taken by the Indian princess Lalla Rookh (Tulip Cheek) to meet her husband-to-be, the King of Bucharia. The girl falls in love with her minstrel attendant Feramorz who, fortunately for her, turns out to be the man she is to wed. Schumann originally earmarked two of the poems spoken by Feramorz – The veiled prophet of Khorassan and Paradise and the Peri – for operatic treatment. While he never got down to working on the first, he was kept busy by Peri for a considerable time and, as the appropriate ‘form in which to set the poem’, he finally chose a non-operatic one. We do not know precisely when and how, during the time Schumann was involved with the Peri material, his about-turn from operatic to concert treatment occurred. When the actual composing of the piece began on 20 February 1843 the question had obviously already been decided, for the work progressed ‘as if inspired’ and with ‘incredible rapidity’, enabling Schumann to complete the composition by September. In his correspondence for the time leading up to the first performance on 4 December 1843, the composer often makes mention of Paradise and the Peri and so permits us an insight into his
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intentions. His remarks to Eduard Krüger in June 1843 are particularly pertinent: ‘And let me also tell you therefore that… I have completed a large opus, the largest I have yet attempted. The material it uses is Paradise and the Peri by Thomas Moore – an oratorio, but not one for the chapel.’ While Schumann does use the term ‘oratorio’ here – somewhat ashamedly, and immediately limiting its connotations – he assiduously avoided the word elsewhere (even on the printed title page), employing instead the term ‘new genre for the concert hall’. The oratorio as a form was clearly connected in his mind with Protestant church music, which he expressly had no intention of producing, seeing its sober style as ‘outmoded’. After Schumann had brought the work to the light of day – and thereby made his conducting debut to boot – two points were clear: his choice of subject had been a lucky one; equally however, he had discovered a highly effective means of setting literature to music. Audience and critics alike were almost unanimous in their enthusiasm, acclaiming it as a ‘work of great genius’ and even recognising that it represented the successful ‘creation of a new musical genre through the extensive application of innovative forms and means’. The compositional innovations Schumann used – apart from the avoidance of the recitative and the ‘continuous flow of the pieces’, both of which he himself mentioned – are mainly to be found in a comprehensive restructuring of the traditional formal canon by superimposing structural and expressive principles of song form over it. In many senses, the literary material he had chosen was in the air at that period, as is very clearly shown by the triumphant success at almost the same time of a Peri ballet (which Schumann later watched, ‘greatly charmed’) at the Paris Opéra. Subjects originating in the oriental sagas and mythologies had been extremely popular since the beginning of the century at the latest, and poetry inclining
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toward orientalism – such as can be found in Goethe and Rückert – had already been set by Schumann. It certainly was not mere exotic colouring that attracted him; to a considerable extent it was the ‘idea behind it all’. The concept of redemption was what fascinated Schumann, and this idea may in fact be seen as an almost central motif in the art of the time. Belonging indubitably to the Romantic ethos – in Moore’s case, ‘more to its humanistic elements than to its mystic, religious ones’ – it yet deals with the ‘redemption of a guilt-filled soul through pity… in truly human form’ (W. Siegmund-Schultze). Hence, Schumann was not engrossed in purely compositional problems; he was equally concerned with their target – the communication of a message to move, elevate and purify humanity. Paradise and the Peri deals with a ‘fallen angel’ and her efforts to regain entry into Heaven. Having been cast out for an unspecified transgression, together with her companions, the Peri may return to grace only on the condition that she succeeds in carrying up ‘the gift that is most dear to Heaven’. She searches in vain for this: in the last drop of blood shed by a youth fighting for his endangered country, and in the dying sighs of a maiden who has sacrificed herself for her beloved. Not until she finds the final offering, a penitent sinner’s remorseful tears, does the gate to ‘sweet Eden’ and ‘joy for ever’ at last open to admit her. Schumann gave his work a tripartite form, to correspond with the three phases of the story. Each of these is dramaturgically linked with the others: the close and climax of the first two sections are marked in each case by the discovery of the offering, while its presentation introduces the section following – ensuring in this way the uninterrupted flow of the whole, even over the intervening pauses. In reworking Moore’s romance, Schumann shortened the text and also added parts where he felt the music demanded them. An introductory section briefly
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summarises the crucial elements in the story: the Peri’s mourning and her longing; the angel’s fateful prophecy; her first deliberations about the means of its accomplishment. Then the Peri sets off to India on the first stage of her search for the ‘gift that will satisfy Heav’n’. The extremely idyllic depiction of this paradisiacal land is followed by dramatic disturbances, for war has broken out there. The single proud youth left standing does not bow down even when promised his life by Gazna the conqueror. His last arrow is for the tyrant: but ‘alas, it missed its mark’ (or as Moore writes: ‘false flew the shaft, though pointed well’) and he himself dies. The second part begins in restrained mood with an elegiac variation of the Peri’s motif. ‘Modest in demeanour’, she renders her first offering, the blood of the hero – and suffers disappointment: ‘holier far the boon must be that opens the Gate of Light for thee’, the angels insist. A brief silence (demanded by Schumann in the score) ensues before the Peri flies to the source of the Nile. The depiction of Egypt that follows is, like that of India in the first part, structured antithetically; the ‘flow’rets of Eden’ are marred by the plague as if by a serpent – conveyed in the music not by powerful accents, but by a gradual clouding of its texture. We encounter a plague-racked youth whose bride – whom he thinks to be in safety – goes with him to her death for love of him. Blocks of song, attaining an impressive degree of melodic momentum at times, combined into a single overall form. The Peri’s following lullaby, which leads into the tranquil final chorus, is one of the highlights of the score. W. Siegmund-Schultze has pointed out the structural similarities this shares with Schumann’s famous F sharp major Romance for piano Op.28 No.2. The third part begins with one of Schumann’s textual additions, a ‘Chorus of the Houris (nymphs of Paradise)’ of bewitching grace. But the Peri’s second offering too, ‘Love’s purest sigh’, meets
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with dismissal. The solo scene ‘Outcast!’ – also inserted by the composer – reveals, amid all her pain, the great inner store of hope the Peri possesses. The piece ventures deep into the operatic, practically anticipating Genoveva, which Schumann composed later. The recitative-aria sequence is perceptible only as a distant memory. In the vicinity of a Sun Temple in Syria, where the last part of the action is set, the Peri secretly observes the scene that will decide her fate. A dark, guilt-ridden character, his face betraying his every misdeed, is moved by the sight of a child and sheds his first tears of remorse. The musical representation of the sinner’s readiness to change his ways is profound in its effect: his sparse words of introspection are developed by the choir into a hymn praising the ‘blest tears of soul-felt penitence’. Beginning in strict counterpoint, the final scene is no less impressive. Its lively and varied structuring, with soli and choir, relies once again upon Schumann’s own textual insertions. Whereas up to this point the action has taken place entirely in a spiritual tone, now – with the acceptance of the third offering and the sinner’s remorseful tears – all is transformed into joyful celebration. This most popular of Schumann’s works while he lived (in the space of a single decade, the composer himself noted nearly 50 performances, some of them as far afield as Dublin, New York and Cape Town) is now one of Schumann’s most seldom heard compositions. If we do not see the romance of the Peri as an indigestible moral tale, we shall be truer to its fairy-tale poetry and the congenial humanism of its approach. For it is precisely in this work that the whole magic, power and freshness of Schumann’s musical idiom is unbroken and effortlessly bridges the passing of time. Translation: Janet & Michael Berridge
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Libretto available at www.brilliantclassics.com
Recording: November & December 1981, Paul-Gerhardt-Kirche, Leipzig, Germany Recording producer: Eberhard Geiger Balance engineer: Horst Kunze Recording engineer: Horst Käppler Editing: Martina Schön 1984 Edel Gesellschaft für Produktmarketing mbH 훿 2016 Brilliant Classics Licensed from Edel Germany GmbH
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