Saturday 9 June 2007, 7.30pm
Deborah Voigt soprano
Brian Zeger piano
Mozart Die ihr des unermesslichen Weltalls Schöpfer ehrt 8’
Verdi Non t’accostare all’urna • Deh, pietoso • Brindisi • In solitaria stanza •
Stornello 18’
R. Strauss Schlechtes Wetter • Ach, Lieb, ich muss nun scheiden •
Lied der Frauen 12’
interval
20’
Respighi Contrasto • Nebbie • Notte • Povero cor 15’
Beach Three Songs by Robert Browning: The year’s at the spring •
Ah, Love, but a day! • I send my heart up to thee 8’
Bernstein When my soul touches yours • So pretty • Another love •
Piccola serenata • Greeting • It’s gotta be bad to be good • Somewhere
15’
Barbican Hall
The Barbican Centre is provided by the
City of London Corporation as part of its
contribution to the cultural life of London
and the nation.
The Great Performers 2007-2008 season is now on sale.
For full details visit www.barbican.org.uk/greatperformers0708 where
you can listen to soundclips and watch the Barbican’s Head of Music
Robert van Leer introduce the new season.
Notes
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91)
Die ihr des unermesslichen Weltalls Schöpfer ehrt K619
(1791)
Mozart
The last of Mozart’s works for solo voice and piano, Die
ihr des unermesslichen Weltalls Schöpfer ehrt
was commissioned by Franz Heinrich Ziegenhagen, the
Hamburg merchant who wrote the words for it. No
ordinary businessman, Ziegenhagen was not only a
Freemason – Emanuel Schikaneder, librettist of Die
Zauberflöte, was at one time a member of the same
lodge in Regensburg – but also a fervent disciple of
Rousseau with an ambition to set up a utopian
community in Alsace. Having bought the land for his
project, he apparently killed himself before he could
realise it. Mozart’s severely Classical-style setting of the
propagandist if high-minded text bears no relation to his
song settings. From the peremptory introduction to the
jubilant coda, the piano part is conspicuously orchestral
in character while the vocal part passes from recitativo
secco to arioso and recitativo accompagnato to aria in a
manner entirely compatible with the alternative title of the
piece, Eine kleine deutsche Kantate (‘A Little German
Cantata’).
Die ihr des unermesslichen Weltalls Schöpfer ehrt
Die ihr des unermesslichen Weltalls Schöpfer ehrt,
Jehova nennt ihn, oder Gott, nennt Fu ihn, oder Brahma,
hört!
Hört Worte aus der Posaune des Allherrschers!
Laut tönt durch Erden, Monde, Sonnen ihr ewger Schall,
Hört Menschen, hört, Menschen, sie auch ihr!
Liebt mich in meinen Werken,
Liebt Ordnung, Ebenmass und Einklang!
Liebt euch, liebt euch, euch selbst und eure Brüder,
Liebt euch selbst und eure Brüder!
Körperkraft und Schönheit sei eure Zier,
Verstandeshelle euer Adel!
Reicht euch der ewgen Freundschaft Bruderhand,
Die nur ein Wahn, nie Wahrheit euch so lang entzog!
Zerbrechet dieses Wahnes Bande,
Zerreisset dieses Vorurteiles Schleier,
Enthüllt euch vom Gewand,
Das Menschheit in Sektiererei verkleidet!
Zu Sicheln schmiedet um das Eisen,
Das Menschen-, das Bruderblut bisher vergoss!
Zersprenget Felsen mit dem schwarzen Staube,
Der mordend Blei ins Bruderherz oft schnellte!
Wähnt nicht, dass wahres Unglück sei auf meiner Erde!
You who honour the creator of the infinite universe
You who honour the creator of the infinite universe,
calling him Jehovah or God, Fu or Brahma,
listen!
Hearken to words from the trumpet of the Lord of all.
Its eternal sound rings loud through earth, moon, suns;
give ear, man, give ear to it also!
Love me in my works,
love order, symmetry and harmony!
Love, love one another, yourselves and your brother,
love yourselves and your brothers!
May you be adorned with bodily strength and beauty,
be enobled by the clearness of your mind!
Offer the brotherly hand of eternal friendship,
withheld so long by delusion merely, never truth!
Break the bonds of this error,
tear aside this veil of prejudice,
shed from yourselves the garment
that disguises humanity as sectarianism!
Into sickles beat the weapon
that till now spilt blood of man, of brother!
Blast rocks with that black powder
which oft into heart of brother hurled murderous lead!
Think not that on my earth any true ill fortune is!
2
Notes
Belehrung ist es nur, die wohltut,
Wenn sie euch zu bessern Taten spornt,
Die Menschen, ihr in Unglück wandelt,
Wenn töricht blind ihr rückwärts in den Stachel schlagt,
Der vorwärts, vorwärts euch antreiben sollte.
Seid weise nur, seid kraftvoll und seid Brüder!
Dann ruht auf euch mein ganzes Wohlgefallen,
Dann netzen Freudenzähren nur die Wangen,
Dann werden eure Klagen Jubeltöne,
Dann schaffet ihr zu Edens Tälern Wüsten,
Dann lachet alles euch in der Natur,
Dann ist’s erreicht, des Lebens wahres Glück!
Teaching alone it is which does good,
spurring you to better deeds;
you, mankind, who wander in unhappiness,
when, foolishly blind, you kick against the pricks
which should drive you on, forwards, forwards.
Be but wise, be vigorous and be brothers!
Then shall my whole favour rest upon you,
then shall your cheeks be wetted only by tears of joy,
then shall your laments turn into rejoicing,
then shall you make of deserts vales of Eden,
then shall all in nature smile upon you,
then shall be attained life’s true good fortune!
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Non t’accostare all’urna (1838)
Deh, pietoso (1838)
Brindisi second version (1845)
In solitaria stanza (1838)
Stornello (1869)
Verdi’s first published work was a volume of Sei romanze
which appeared in Milan in 1838, when he still occupied
the humble post of maestro di musica in Busseto. He had
not yet written his first opera – Oberto was to be
performed at La Scala the following year – but it is clear
from these six early songs what his ambitions were. Even
allowing for the 18 years between the two, a comparison
of Non t’accostare all’urna with Schubert’s elegant
setting of the same words throws into relief the
fundamentally theatrical approach adopted by Verdi.
The dramatic introduction, the heroic posture of the
vocal line, the intervention of reproachful recitative with
its change of pace in the third stanza, the plaintive
ending: these were all to be characteristic features of
Verdi’s early operatic arias. From the same collection,
Deh, pietoso is an accomplished forerunner of his
preghiere or ‘prayer’ arias, even though Goethe’s text
Verdi
(translated into Italian from Faust Part II) requires more
varied expression than most of its kind. The brindisi or
drinking song being another operatic staple, Verdi
produced an entertainingly colourful example as early
as 1835 but refined its excesses before publishing it in his
second collection of Romanze 10 years later.
The most prophetic item in the 1838 Sei romanze is In
solitaria stanza, which begins modestly enough in
song mode and then on ‘Salvate, o dei pietosi’ (Save, oh
merciful gods) launches into an operatic flight of
passion, on a rising chromatic line, which would be
echoed 15 years later in Leonora’s ‘Tacea la notte’ in
Il trovatore. There is no operatic echo, on the other hand,
of Stornello which, a brilliantly witty setting of a folksong text with the most effective piano part in all Verdi’s
songs, is like nothing else he wrote.
texts overleaf …
3
Notes
Non t’accostar all’urna
Non t’accostar all’urna,
Che il cener mio rinserra,
Questa pietosa terra
È sacra al mio dolor.
Do not approach the urn
Do not approach the urn
that holds my ashes;
this holy ground
is sacred to my sadness.
Odio gli affanni tuoi,
Ricuso i tuoi giacinti;
Che giovano agli estinti
Due lagrime, due fior?
I loathe your worrying,
I refuse your hyacinths;
what good to the dead are
a couple of tears or a few flowers?
Empia! Dovevi allora
Porgermi un fil d’aita,
Quando traéa la vita
Nell’ansia e nei sospir.
Wicked one! Must you then
hand me a thread of hope,
when it only forces my life
into anxiety and sighing?
A che d’inutil pianto
Assordi la foresta?
Rispetta un’ombra mesta,
E lasciala dormir.
For whom with your useless crying
do you deafen the forest?
Respect a sad shadow,
and allow it to sleep.
Deh, pietoso
Deh, pietoso, oh Addolorata,
China il guardo al mio dolore;
Tu, una spada fitta in core,
Volgi gl’occhi desolata
Al morente tuo figliuol.
Quelle occhiate, i sospir vanno
Lassù al padre e son preghiera
Che il suo tempri ed il tuo affanno.
Come a me squarcin le viscere
Gl’insoffribili miei guai
E dell’ansio petto i palpiti
Chi comprendere può mai?
Di che trema il cor? Che vuol?
Ah! tu sola il sai, tu sol!
Sempre, ovunque il passo io giro,
Qual martiro, qual martiro
Qui nel sen porto con me!
Solitaria appena, oh, quanto
Verso allora, oh, quanto pianto
E di dentro scoppia il cor.
Sul vasel del finestrino
La mia lacrima scendea
Quando all’alba del mattino.
Ah, have mercy
Ah, have mercy, oh woman of grief,
lower your gaze towards my suffering;
You, whose heart has been torn by the sword,
address your desolate eyes
to your dying son.
These glances, and all that vain sighing
will rise to God as prayers,
prayers that strengthen him and temper your worry.
My insufferable troubles
tear up my insides
and the relentless pounding in my breast –
who can understand it any more?
Why is my heart trembling? What’s happening?
Ah! You alone know it, only you!
Always, wherever I go, wherever I pass by,
what martyrdom, what martyrdom
I carry in my breast!
Alone then, ah, so many tears,
I cry so many tears
and inside my heart is bursting.
On the vase near the window
my tear fell
in the first light of morning.
4
Notes
Questi fior per te cogliea,
Chè del sole il primo raggio
La mia stanza rischiarava
E dal letto mi cacciava
Agitandomi il dolor.
Ah, per te dal disonore,
Dalla morte io sia salvata.
Deh, pietoso al mio dolore
China il guardo, oh Addolorata!
I gathered these flowers for you,
when the sun’s morning rays
shone in my room,
ousting me from my bed,
exacerbating my pain.
Ah, through you
may I be saved from dishonour and death,
oh have mercy on my suffering,
lower your gaze, oh woman of grief!
Brindisi
Mescetemi il vino! Tu solo, o bicchiero,
Fra gaudi terreni non sei menzognero,
Tu, vita de’ sensi, letizia del cor.
Amai; m’infiammaro due sguardi fatali;
Credei l’amicizia fanciulla senz’ali,
Follia de’ prim’anni, fantasma illusor.
Drinking song
Pour me some wine! Only you, oh glass,
of all the earthly pleasures, are not a liar.
You give life to the senses, joy to the heart.
I have loved; I was inflamed by two fatal glances;
I believed in the friendship of a girl without wings,
Foolishness of youth, illusory fantasies.
Mescetemi il vino, letizia del cor.
L’amico, l’amante col tempo ne fugge,
Ma tu non paventi chi tutto distrugge:
L’età non t’offende, t’accresce virtù.
Sfiorito l’aprile, cadute le rose,
Tu sei che n’allegri le cure noiose:
Sei tu che ne torni la gioia che fu.
Pour me some wine, joy of the heart.
A friend, a lover – they leave after a while,
but you do not dread that which destroys everyone else:
Age doesn’t offend you; it only increases your virtue.
April is passed blooming, the roses have fallen,
you are the one who eases wearisome cares,
you are the one who brings back former joys.
Mescetemi il vino, letizia del cor.
Chi meglio risana del cor le ferite?
Se te non ci desse la provvida vite,
Sarebbe immortale l’umano dolor.
Mescetemi il vino! Tu sol, o bicchiero,
Fra gaudi terreni non sei menzognero,
Tu, vita de’ sensi, letizia del cor.
Pour me some wine, joy of the heart.
Who can restore an injured heart better than you?
If you had not offered us your provident vine,
human suffering would never end.
Pour me some wine! Only you, oh glass,
of all the earthly pleasures, are not a liar.
You bring life to the senses, joy to the heart.
In solitaria stanza
In solitaria stanza
Langue per doglia atroce;
Il labbro è senza voce,
Senza respiro il sen.
In a lonely room
In a lonely room
she languishes in unspeakable pain;
her lips have no voice,
her breast is without its breath.
Come in deserta aiuola,
Che di rugiade è priva,
Sotto alla vampa estiva
Molle narcisso svien.
As in a deserted flower bed,
bereft of dew,
under the blaze of summer
a tired narcissus wilts.
please turn page quietly …
5
Notes
Io, dall’affanno oppresso,
Corro per vie rimote
E grido in suon che puote
Le rupi intenerir.
And I, oppressed by anxiety,
I wander along remote paths,
and let forth a scream that could
shake the cliffs.
Salvate, o dei pietosi,
Quella beltà celeste;
Voi forse non sapreste
Un’altra Irene ordir.
Save, oh merciful gods,
this celestial beauty;
for perhaps you would not know
how to craft another Irene.
Stornello
Tu dici che non m’ami ... anch’io non t’amo.
Dici non vi vuoi ben, non te ne voglio.
Dici ch’a un altro pesce hai teso l’amo.
Anch’io in altro giardin la rosa coglio.
Rhyme
You say that you don’t love me … well, I don’t love you either!
You say that you don’t want me, I don’t want you anyway;
you say you’re casting around for another fish –
well, I’m picking roses in other gardens.
Anco di questo vo’che ci accordiamo:
Tu fai quel che ti pare, io quel che voglio.
Son libera di me, padrone è ognuno.
Servo di tutti e non servo a nessuno.
There’s something we can agree on:
you do as you like, and I’ll do as I like.
I’m free for myself, everyone is his own master,
servant to everyone, yet serving no one.
Costanza nell’amor è una follia;
Volubile io sono e me ne vanto.
Non tremo più scontrandoti per via,
Né, quando sei lontan mi struggo in pianto.
Come usignuol che uscì di prigionia
Tutta la notte e il dì folleggio e canto.
Constancy in love is a folly;
I am unfaithful and proud of it.
I’ll no longer tremble when I meet you in the street,
I’ll no longer struggle with tears when you are far away.
Just like a nightingale who has left its cage
I’ll sing and chirrup night and day.
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Schlechtes Wetter Op.69 No.5 (1918)
Ach, Lieb, ich muss nun scheiden Op.21 No.3 (1887-8)
Lied der Frauen Op.68 No.6 (1918)
Strauss
Comic character observation like that of Verdi’s Stornello
is more likely to be found in the Lieder of Hugo Wolf and
Richard Strauss than in Italian song. Strauss’s Schlechtes
Wetter offers a choice example. Heinrich Heine’s irony
is first matched by stormy imagery in the piano part, as
the fond mother ventures out in the foul weather, and is
6
then – on turning to her spoilt daughter reclining at home
– excelled in a luxuriant waltz coloured by harmonies
which, had they been written ten years later, could be
described as jazzy.
After the relative calm of the folk-song-style Ach, Lieb, ich
Notes
muss nun scheiden, where the pain of loss is
internalised, there is another, but in this case seriously fierce,
storm in Lied der Frauen. One of the most challenging of
all Strauss’s songs, ‘Song of the women’ is positively
operatic in the vocal part and dauntingly symphonic in the
piano part – which is why it is so rarely performed.
Beginning in C minor, the storm rages through four stanzas
as the fisherman’s wife, the shepherd’s wife, the miner’s wife
and the soldier’s wife each gives near-hysterical voice to her
fears for the life of her husband. Even as the weather clears
and the lark sings of victory the frantic figuration is retained
and it is only gradually, after the key changes to C major at
the beginning of the last stanza, that, with encouragement
from the Book of Job, peace is secured.
Schlechtes Wetter
Das ist ein schlechtes Wetter,
Es regnet und stürmt und schneit;
Ich sitze am Fenster und schaue
Hinaus in die Dunkelheit.
Bad weather
The weather is bad,
it is raining and storming and snowing;
I sit by the window and look out
into the darkness.
Da schimmert ein einsames Lichtchen,
Das wandelt langsam fort:
Ein Mütterchen mit dem Laternchen
Wankt über die Strasse dort.
A lonely little light is glowing out there,
it is moving slowly away;
A young mother with her little lantern
stumbles along the street.
Ich glaube, Mehl und Eier
Und Butter kaufte sie ein;
Sie will einen Kuchen backen
Fürs grosse Töchterlein.
I believe she’s buying
flour and eggs and butter;
she wants to bake a cake
for her fat little daughter.
Die liegt zu Haus im Lehnstuhl,
Und blinzelt schläfrig ins Licht;
Die goldnen Locken wallen
Über das süsse Gesicht.
Her daughter is at home, lying in an armchair
blinking sleepily at the light;
her golden locks fall
over her sweet face.
Ach Lieb, ich muss nun scheiden
Ach Lieb, ich muss nun scheiden,
Gehn über Berg und Tal,
Die Erlen und die Weiden,
Die weinen allzumal.
Ah love, I must now depart
Ah love, I must now depart,
going over mountain and valley,
the alders and the willows,
they all weep together.
Sie sahn so oft uns wandern
Zusammen an Baches Rand,
Das eine ohn’ den andern
Geht über ihren Verstand.
They saw us walk together so often
along the brook,
when they see one of us without the other,
they just cannot understand.
Die Erlen und die Weiden
Vor Schmerz in Tränen stehn,
Nun denket, wie’s uns beiden
Erst muss zu Herzen gehn.
The alders and the willows
stand weeping in pain and tears,
now think how it is for both of us
in our hearts.
please turn page quietly …
7
Notes
Lied der Frauen
Wenn es stürmt auf den Wogen,
Strickt die Schifferin zu Haus,
Doch ihr Herz ist hingezogen
Auf die wilde See hinaus.
Bei jeder Welle, die brandet
Schäumend an Ufers Rand,
Denkt sie: er strandet, er strandet,
Er strandet, er kehrt mir nimmer zum Land.
Song of the women
When the waves are stormy,
the seaman’s wife stays home and knits,
but her heart is drawn
toward the wild sea.
With every swell that foams
on the shoreline,
she thinks: he is stranded, he is stranded,
he is stranded and will never return to me on land.
Bei des Donners wildem Toben
Spinnt die Schäferin zu Haus,
Doch ihr Herz das schwebet oben
In des Wetters wildem Saus.
Bei jedem Strahle, der klirrte
Schmetternd durch Donners Groll,
Denkt sie: Mein Hirte, mein Hirte,
Mein Hirte mir nimmermehr kehren soll!
As the thunder rages wildly,
the shepherdess sits at her spinning wheel,
but her heart hovers above
in the storm’s wild brashness.
With each flash of lightning that cracks
amid the thunder’s roar,
she thinks: my shepherd, my shepherd,
my shepherd will never return to me.
Wenn es in dem Abgrund bebet,
Sitzt des Bergmanns Weib zu Haus,
Doch ihr treues Herz, das schwebet
In des Schachtes dunklem Graus.
Bei jedem Stosse, der rüttet
Bebend im wankenden Schacht,
Denkt sie: verschüttet, verschüttet, verschüttet,
Ist mein Knapp in der Erde Nacht!
When the abyss trembles,
the miner’s wife sits at home,
but her faithful heart hovers
in the terrifying dark mineshaft.
With each shock that jolts
the quaking, shuddering shaft,
she thinks: shut away, shut away,
my man is shut away in the dark earth!
Wenn die Feldschlacht tost und klirret,
Sitzt des Kriegers Weib zu Haus,
Doch ihr banges Herz, das irret
Durch der Feldschlacht wild Gebraus.
Bei jedem Klang, jedem Hallen an Bergeswand.
Denkt sie: gefallen, gefallen, gefallen
Ist mein Held nun fürs Vaterland.
When the battle roars and clatters,
the wife of the warrior sits at home,
but her anxious heart wanders
into the battle’s wild chaos.
With each clang, each echo on the hillside,
she thinks: fallen, fallen,
my hero has fallen for his homeland.
Aber ferne schon über die Berge ziehen
Die Wetter, der Donner verhallt,
Hör’ wie der trunkenen, jubelnden
Lerche Tireli, Tireli, siegreich erschallt.
Raben, zieht weiter! Himmel wird heiter,
Dringe mir, dringe mir, Sonne, hervor!
Über die Berge, jubelnde Lerche,
Singe mir, singe mir Wonne ins Ohr!
But now the storm moves on, over the mountains
the weather and the thunder die away,
hear how the lark, drunk with rejoicing,
calls out in victory, Tireli, Tireli!
Raven, get away! The heavens become cheerful,
come to me, come to me, oh sun!
Oh lark rejoicing over the mountains,
sing to me, sing your joy in my ear!
8
Notes
Mit Zypress und Lorbeer kränzet
Sieg das freudig ernste Haupt.
Herr! Wenn er mir wieder glänzet
Mit dem Trauer grün umlaubt,
Dann, sternlose Nacht, sei wilkommen,
Der Herr hat gegeben den Stern,
Der Herr hat genommen, genommen,
Genommen, gelobt sei der Name des Herrn!
Gelobt! Gelobt! Gelobt! Gelobt!
The happy, earnest head of the victor
is adorned with funeral crowns of cypress and laurel.
Lord! Should he appear again before me thus,
wreathed in the green of mourning,
then, starless night, be welcome,
for the Lord has given you a star,
the Lord taken him up, the Lord has taken him up,
the Lord has taken him up, blessed be the name of the Lord!
Praise him! Praise him! Praise him! Praise him!
Translation © Benjamin D. Sosland
interval
Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)
Contrasto (1906)
Nebbie (1909)
Notte (1905-12)
Povero cor (1909)
Like Strauss, Respighi was married to a highly
accomplished soprano who inspired and took part in the
first performances of many of his works. Some of his best
songs, however, like the first two in this programme, date
from as long as 13 years before his association with Elsa
Sangiacomo began – at a time, that is, when the Italian
vocal repertoire was overwhelmingly dominated by
opera and the only song composers who found popular
favour were Francesco Paolo Tosti and his even paler
imitators.
In the absence of an Italian tradition equivalent to that of
the Lied or the mélodie, Respighi himself did not escape
the drawing-room influence in the songs he was working
on in the 1890s. By 1906, however, when he wrote not
only Contrasto and Nebbie but also several other
successful songs, he had developed a style of his own,
not least by reference to contemporary French models.
Respighi
The caressing melodic line and fluid piano textures of
Contrasto, to a symbolist text by Puccini’s librettist Carlo
Zangarini, is a persuasive example of that. It is difficult,
on the other hand, to think of anything in the French
repertoire as stark as Respighi’s setting of Ada Negri’s
Nebbie which has retained its status as a favourite
among his songs not by charm, obviously, but by its
uncompromising emotional intensity.
Another Negri setting, Notte (originally written as a
duet in 1906 and first published as a solo song in 1909) is
closer in its lyrical manner to Contrasto except for one
searing outcry which reveals a state of mind almost as
unhappy as that of Nebbie. Povero cor, from the Sei
melodie of 1909, confirms Respighi’s overwhelming
authority in the expression of suicidal despair while
retaining his characteristic stylistic integrity and his
refreshing rejection of cliché.
texts overleaf …
9
Notes
Contrasto
Piange lenta la luna
Su rugiade gemmanti ...
Or lieto all’aria bruna
Sia l’oblio de li amanti
Però che dolce è il riso
Tra il pianto de le cose!
Contrast
The moon weeps slowly
on the glistening dew ...
Yet content in the darkness,
lovers, in their oblivion,
smile so sweetly
through tears!
Ben la luna compose
A mestizia il viso.
O amica, a quando a quando
Giova l’oblio: scordare
Le altrui doglianze amare.
Intorno andar cantando,
Mentre piange la luna.
How the moon shines
upon your melancholy face.
Oh friend, once in a while
welcome this oblivion: to forget
the other hardships of love.
Sing as you make your way,
while the moon weeps.
Nebbie
Soffro, lontan lontano
Le nebbie sonnolente
Salgono dal tacente
Piano.
Mists
I suffer. Far, far away
the sleeping mists
rise from the plain
quietly.
Alto gracchiando, i corvi,
Fidati all’ali nere,
Traversan le brughiere
Torvi.
With a shrill call, the crows,
trusting their black wings,
fly over the moors
grimly.
Dell’aere ai morsi crudi
Gli addolorati tronchi
Offron, pregando, i brochi nudi.
Come ho freddo!
In the air’s raw bite
the sorrowful tree trunks
offer their bare branches as if in prayer.
I am so cold!
Son sola;
Pel grigio ciel sospinto
Un gemito destinto
Vola;
I am alone;
through the grey sky
a groan of the dead
rises;
E mi ripete: Vieni;
È buia la vallata.
O triste, o disamata
Vieni! Vieni!
And says again to me: come;
the valley is dark.
Oh sad one, oh unloved one,
come! Come!
10
Notes
Notte
Sul giardino fantastico
Profumato di rosa
La carezza de l’ombra
Posa.
Night
In an extraordinary garden
perfumed with the scent of roses,
the caress of shadows
lies.
Pure ha un pensiero e un palpito
La quiete suprema,
L’aria come per brivido
Trema.
With a thought and a throbbing
in supreme stillness,
the air, like a shiver,
shudders.
La luttuosa tenebra
Una storia di morte
Racconta alle cardenie
Smorte?
Does the mournful darkness
tell a story of death
to the gardenias
so pallid?
Forse perché una pioggia
Di soavi rugiade
Entro socchiusi petali
Cade,
Perhaps, because a drop
of gentle dew
into the half-closed petals
falls,
Su l’ascose miserie
E su l’ebbrezze perdute,
Sui muti sogni e l’ansie
Mute.
for hidden miseries
and for lost ardour,
for unspoken dreams and anxieties
mute,
Su le fugaci gioie
Che il disinganno infrange
La notte le sue lacrime
Piange.
for fleeting joys
shattered by deception,
the tears of the night
weep.
Povero cor
O mio povero cor, morta è la pace,
Morto è l’amor, di novo a che sussulti?
Morta è la fede; a che più la vorace
Fiamma di vita nel tuo grembo occulti?
O mio povero cor, quando più tace
La fredda notte e dei patiti insulti
Grave su te la rimembranza giace,
Udirmi sembra i tuoi sordi singulti.
O mio povero cor, fossi tu morto!
Così di gel così d’angoscia stretto
Onde vuo’ tu sperar gioia o conforto?
O mio povero cor, non rinvenire;
O mio povero cor del chiuso petto
Fatti una tomba e lasciati morire!
Poor heart
Oh, my poor heart, peace is dead,
love is dead, what makes you jump again?
Fidelity is dead; why are you
hiding the voracious flame of life in your dark womb?
Oh my poor heart, when the cold night is silent,
and painful insults
weigh heavily on veiled memories,
I seem to hear your stifled crying.
Oh my poor heart, if you were dead!
Cold like ice, wrapped in anguish,
where would you hope to find joy or comfort?
Oh my poor heart, do not revive yourself;
Oh my poor heart locked within my breast,
make a tomb and allow yourself to die.
Translation © Benjamin D. Sosland
11
Notes
Amy Beach (1867–1944)
Three Songs by Robert Browning Op.44 (1900):
The year’s at the spring • Ah, Love, but a day! •
I send my heart up to thee
It’s a brave composer who chooses a text including the two
lines ‘God’s in his heaven/All’s right with the world!’ from
Browning’s Pippa Passes. But Amy Beach, a phenomenally
gifted musician regarded in her time as one of America’s
leading composers, was not lacking in confidence in her
talent. As she said, ‘How inevitable it was that music should
be my life’s work. Both in composition and piano playing,
there seemed to be such a strong attraction that no other
life than that of a musician could ever have been possible
for me.’ When her husband prevailed upon her to limit her
activities as a pianist, she threw herself into composition,
largely self-taught in this area though she was, and
uninhibitedly got to work in just about every major genre. It
was, however, her songs (117 in all) that brought her most
success in her lifetime and it is her vocal pieces, eclectic in
style and spontaneous in inspiration, by which she is best
remembered today.
The year’s at the spring
The year’s at the spring,
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hill-side’s dew-pearl’d;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in his heaven –
All’s right with the world!
Ah, Love, but a day
Ah, Love, but a day,
And the world has changed!
The sun’s away,
And the bird estranged;
The wind has dropped,
And the sky’s deranged;
Summer has stopped.
Ah, Love, but a day,
And the world has changed!
12
Beach
Propelled by urgent piano triplets towards an elated
climax not at all unworthy of its famous last lines, The
year’s at the spring is the first of the three songs
written to a commission from the Browning Society of
Boston in 1900. Ah, Love, but a day is particularly
interesting for the change of mood half-way through
where, to emphasise the poet’s growing anxiety, the
composer drops the nostalgic counter-melody (scored for
violin in one version) that seductively weaves itself round
the vocal line in the first stanza. While rejecting
Browning’s title In a Gondola for I send my heart up
to thee, Beach nevertheless takes the hint and sets his
verses as a fervently melodious barcarolle in 9/8 with a
rocking and rippling arpeggio accompaniment.
Look in my eyes!
Wilt thou change too?
Should I fear surprise?
Shall I find aught new
In the old and dear,
In the good and true,
With the changing year?
Ah, Love, look in my eyes,
Wilt thou change too?
I send my heart up to thee
I send my heart up to thee, all my heart
In this my singing.
For the stars help me, and the sea bears part;
The very night is clinging
Closer to Venice’ streets to leave one space
Above me, whence thy face
May light my joyous heart to thee, its dwelling place.
Notes
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
When my soul touches yours, from Two Love Songs (1949)
So pretty (1968)
Another love
Piccola serenata (1979)
Greeting (1988)
It’s gotta be bad to be good, from On the Town (1944)
Somewhere, from West Side Story (1957)
There could be no better demonstration of the
extraordinary versatility of Leonard Bernstein’s creative
genius – which was as strikingly evident in the concert hall
as in the musical theatre – than the seven songs chosen
for the last group in today’s recital. Though written
midway between the musicals On the Town and
Wonderful Town, his Two Love Songs, both to words by
Rainer Maria Rilke in English translations by Jessie
Lemont, have nothing of Broadway in them. The ‘great
chord’ of the first line of When my soul touches
yours is a spacious piano dissonance that underlies the
whole song, giving way to the sweetly contrapuntal lines
of ‘played strings’ in the middle but restored to its full
stature at the end. While there is something of Broadway
in So pretty – it was written for Barbra Streisand and
the composer to perform at the ‘Broadway for Peace’
demonstration against the Vietnam war in 1968 – it
displays a textural dichotomy similar to that of When my
soul touches yours. The nursery simplicity of the vocal line
is set in the alien context of the opening piano dissonance
and the harsh reality of the harmonies at the end.
Where Another love comes from, and when it was
written, nobody seems to know. All one can say for
certain about it is that it was not written, as sometimes
mistakenly alleged, for a Broadway version of Peter Pan
in 1950 and that it was included in By Bernstein, a show
made up of similarly stray pieces, at the Chelsea
Westside Theatre in 1975. There is no mystery, on the
other hand, about the Piccola serenata, which is a
Bernstein
witty setting of nonsense words written in celebration of
Karl Böhm’s 85th birthday and first performed by Christa
Ludwig and James Levine at the Salzburg Festival in
1979. Greeting comes from Arias and Barcarolles, a
cycle that takes its name from the occasion in 1960 when
Bernstein conducted music by Mozart and Gershwin at
the White House and was congratulated by President
Eisenhower with the immortal words, ‘You know, I liked
that last piece you played; it’s got a theme. I like music
with a theme, not all them arias and barcarolles.’ Neither
aria nor barcarolle but a little song of touching simplicity,
it was written after the birth of the composer’s son
Alexander in 1955 and revised for publication in Arias
and Barcarolles in 1988.
The last two items were both written for Broadway,
although only one of them actually made it. It’s gotta
be bad to be good (words also by Bernstein) is not
conspicuously better or worse than the rest of On the
Town but it was cut from the show before its first
performance at the Adelphi Theatre in 1944 and
disappeared from view until it resurfaced in By Bernstein,
31 years later. As for Somewhere (words by Stephen
Sondheim) from West Side Story, it is based on a melody
that, as so often in a Bernstein score, transcends all
musical class distinctions.
texts overleaf …
13
Notes
When my soul touches yours
When my soul touches yours a great chord sings:
How can I tune it then to other things?
Oh, if some spot in darkness could be found
That does not vibrate when your depths sound
But everything that touches you and me
Welds us as played strings sound one melody.
Where, where is the instrument whence the sounds flow?
And whose the magic hand that holds the bow?
Oh, sweet the song, Oh!
So pretty
We were learning in our school today
All about a country far away,
Full of lovely temples painted gold,
Modern cities, jungles ages old.
And the people are so pretty there,
Shining smiles, and shiny eyes and hair …
Then I had to ask my teacher why
War was making all those people die.
They’re so pretty, so pretty.
Then my teacher said, and took my hand,
‘They must die for peace, you understand.’
But they’re so pretty, so pretty.
I don’t understand.
Another love
And so I’ve had another love,
Another spring, another spell.
I thought that this time it was love,
The diamond ring, the wedding bell.
So we spent a few days in a magical haze;
You said, at the time,
It was wonderful, sweet, terrific, sublime!
And then you found it all a bore,
And here am I just like before.
And so I’ve had another love.
© Amberson Holdings LLC
14
Piccola serenata
patter lyric
Da-ga-da-ga-dum-da-lai-la-lo, etc.
Greeting
When a boy is born,
the world is born again,
And takes its first breath with him.
When a girl is born,
the world stops turning ‘round,
And keeps a moment’s hushed wonder.
Every time a child is born,
for the space of that brief instant,
The world is pure.
It’s gotta be bad to be good
You don’t talk to me tender,
Or treat me easy,
The way that a good lover should.
It’s not very gay,
But love is that way.
It’s gotta be bad to be good.
Since the first day we started
You played me evil;
Don’t know how I’ve stood what I’ve stood,
But I’ll stay around
’Cause, baby, I’ve found
It’s gotta be bad to be good.
You say that I’ll leave you,
Bad penny, bye-bye,
That I’ll go and deceive you
With some sweeter guy.
The spell that you weave,
You know I’ll never fly.
Is it fair? I don’t care.
Notes
It’s a strange kind of love
If it keeps you cryin’,
But I wouldn’t change it if I could.
I’m in for a ride,
But I’m satisfied,
’Cause it’s gotta be bad to be good.
’Cause it’s gotta be bad,
’Cause if love isn’t bad it ain’t good.
© 1981 Amberson Holdings LLC
Somewhere
There’s a place for us,
Somewhere a place for us,
Peace and quiet and open air
Wait for us somewhere.
Someday! Somewhere!
We’ll find a new way of living,
We’ll find a way of forgiving
Somewhere –
There’s a place for us,
A time and place for us.
Hold my hand and we’re halfway there,
Hold my hand and I’ll take you there,
Somehow,
Some day,
Somewhere.
There’s a time for us,
Some day a time for us,
Time together with time to spare,
Time to look, time to care.
Programme notes by Gerald Larner © 2007
Find out first Why not download your Great Performers programme before the concert? Each programme is now available online five days in
advance of each concert. Due to the possibility of last minute changes, the online programme content may differ slightly from that of the final
printed version. For details visit www.barbican.org.uk/greatperformers
15
About the performers
Last season, at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu,
Deborah Voigt added Ponchielli’s La Gioconda to her
extensive repertoire; a DVD was released recently. She
also made her ‘American Songbook’ cabaret concert
debut in New York and gave concerts with the tenor
Ben Heppner.
Current plans include returning to the roles of Strauss’s
Marschallin and Ariadne at the Vienna State Opera, as
well as recitals and concerts in a range of major cultural
cities including London, Boston, Los Angeles, Munich,
New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Sarasota, Seattle,
Toronto and Washington. Next season she sings the role
of Ariadne at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Deborah Voigt soprano
Deborah Voigt, one of today’s leading dramatic
sopranos, has sung in Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf
Naxos, Salome, Der Rosenkavalier, Elektra and Die
ägyptische Helena, and in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde,
Die Walküre, Der fliegende Holländer, Tannhäuser and
Lohengrin. She opened the 2006/07 season in San
Francisco as Amelia in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera,
followed by her first staged performances in Salome at
the Lyric Opera of Chicago. In March she took the titlerole in the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Die
ägyptische Helena, an opera not seen in the house for
nearly 80 years, and she returned to Carnegie Hall, New
York, last month for a solo recital.
Acclaimed for her interpretation of a variety of roles,
Deborah Voigt has received accolades in such Italian
roles as Amelia, Aida, Lady Macbeth, Tosca and
Leonora (in both La forza del destino and Il trovatore),
as well as in the French role of Cassandre in Berlioz’s Les
troyens. She has a large discography of complete
operas ranging from Tristan und Isolde to Les troyens
and Die Frau ohne Schatten. Popular song and the music
of Broadway are equally important to Voigt. Following
the best-selling disc Obsessions (arias and scenes by
Wagner and Strauss), her second solo disc, All My Heart,
is a recital of American songs; both are on EMI Classics,
the label for which she records exclusively.
16
Deborah Voigt has sung with most of today’s greatest
conductors. She studied at California State University at
Fullerton and on San Francisco Opera’s Merola
Program. She won the Luciano Pavarotti Voice
Competition and Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Competition,
and was named Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des
Lettres by the French government. She also received a
2007 Opera News award for distinguished
achievement.
About the performers
From 1993 to 2000 he was the artistic director of the
Cape and Islands Chamber Music Festival, on Cape
Cod, where his involvement also included collaborations
with the Borromeo and Brentano Quartets, as well as
with the cellist Bernard Greenhouse, violinists Glenn
Dicterow and Eugene Drucker, and flautist Paula
Robison. He has also been a regular guest at many other
summer festivals including Aspen, Ravinia, Caramoor,
Aldeburgh and Santa Fe.
Brian Zeger piano
The pianist Brian Zeger has built an important career not
only as a pianist, appearing in distinguished concert
venues all over the United States and Europe, but also as
an expert ensemble performer, artistic administrator and
educator. In a career spanning more than two decades
he has collaborated with such artists as the violinist Itzhak
Perlman, flautist James Galway, actress Claire Bloom,
and singers Marilyn Horne, Kathleen Battle and Arleen
Auger. In addition to his concert career, he has just
completed his second season as artistic director of the
Vocal Arts Department at the Juilliard School.
Brian Zeger has a degree in English Literature from
Harvard College, a master’s degree from the Juilliard
School and a doctorate from the Manhattan School of
Music. Other teaching assignments have included the
Mannes College of Music, Peabody Conservatory and
Guildhall School of Music. He has been on the faculty of
the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, the
Chautauqua Institution and the Steans Institute at the
Ravinia Festival. He has appeared frequently on the
Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts both on the opera
quiz and as an interval feature presenter. His recordings
are available on the EMI Classics, New World, Naxos
and Koch labels.
His 2006/07 season includes an international recital tour
with Deborah Voigt and recitals in the US with Denyce
Graves and in Canada with Adrianne Pieczonka.
Highlights of recent seasons have included recitals in the
US and abroad with Deborah Voigt, Hei-Kyung Hong,
Susan Graham, Denyce Graves, Katarina Karnéus, Joyce
DiDonato, Thomas Hampson and Bryn Terfel, as well as
with René Pape at the Marilyn Horne Foundation Gala, a
concerto appearance with the Boston Pops in Boston’s
Symphony Hall, a White House appearance with Susan
Graham and a concert with the New York Philharmonic
Chamber Ensembles.
17
Barbican Committee
Chairman
John Barker OBE
Music Programmers
Gijs Elsen
Bryn Ormrod
Deputy Chairman
Jeremy Mayhew MBA
Programming Consultant
Angela Dixon
Mary Lou Carrington MBA
Christine Cohen OBE
Stuart John Fraser
Maureen Kellett
Lesley King-Lewis
Joyce Nash OBE
John Owen-Ward
John Robins
Patrick Roney CBE
John Tomlinson
Programming Assistants
Andrea Jung
Gersende Giorgio
Katy Morrison
Barbican Directorate
Managing Director
Sir John Tusa
Artistic Director
Graham Sheffield
Commercial and
Venue Services Director
Mark Taylor
Projects and Building
Services Director
Michael Hoch
Finance Director
Sandeep Dwesar
HR Director
Diane Lennan
Executive Assistant
to Sir John Tusa
Leah Nicholls
Barbican Music Department
Head of Music
Robert van Leer
Concert Hall Manager
Vicky Cheetham
Concerts Planning Manager
Frances Bryant
Music Administrator
Thomas Hardy
Concerts Assistant
Catherine Langston
Head of Marketing
Chris Denton
Music Marketing Manager
Jacqueline Barsoux
Marketing Executives
Naomi Engler
Bethan Sheppard
Event Managers
Kate Packham
Kirsten Siddle
Fiona Todd
Production Assistant
Corinna Woolmer
Technical Manager
Eamonn Byrne
Deputy Technical Manager
Ingo Reinhardt
Technical Supervisors
Mark Bloxsidge
Steve Mace
Technicians
Maurice Adamson
Jasja van Andel
Robert Jennings
Jason Kew
Martin Shaw
Stage Manager
Elizabeth Burgess
Deputy Stage Manager
Julie-Anne Bolton
Performing Arts Marketing
Assistant
Sarah Hemingway
Stage Supervisors
Christopher Alderton
Paul Harcourt
Media Relations Manager
(Contemporary Music)
Alex Webb
Stage Assistants
Ademola Akisanya
Michael Casey
Andy Clarke
Trevor Davison
Heloise Donnelly-Jackson
Hannah Wye
Media Relations Manager
Nicky Thomas
Media Relations Officer
Hannah Kendall
Senior Production Manager
Eddie Shelter
Technical & Stage Coordinator
Colette Chilton
Production Managers
Jessica Buchanan-Barrow
Alison Cooper
Programme edited by Edge-Wise, artwork by Jane Denton; printed by Vitesse London;
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