May 31, 2006

An evening of great Lieder, set amidst a rich variety of instrumental colour.

Programme Notes
by Andrea Budgey


Robert Schumann: Abendlied
Mieczyslaw Kolinski: Lyric Sextet
Adolf Busch: Drei Lieder
Franz Schubert / Aribert Reimann: Mignon
Paul Hindemith: Die junge Magd, Op. 23b
Franz Schubert: Der Hirt auf dem Felsen
Richard Strauss: Morgen!

The German word lied, on one level, is merely the translation of the English word song. But it is used in all languages to refer to a particular kind of song that came into being as a result of the Romantic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and that achieved its great flowering in the hands of German composers setting German poetry. In this music, there was a new and intimate union between music and poetry. The poetry is not merely narrative, but always highly expressive. The music is not merely accompaniment, but a full partner – and it goes beyond the simply imitative, to supporting, illustrating and intensifying the meaning of the poetry. Most lieder employ only the piano as accompaniment, and find a world of expression within it. Tonight’s programme explores the small but captivating segment of the repertoire that draws upon the colours of other instruments. The mood ranges from the exuberant romanticism of Schubert’s Der Hirt auf dem Felsen to the bleak expressionism of Hindemith’s Die junge Magd, always informed by the Romantic preoccupation with the inner life of an individual.
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Robert Alexander Schumann (1810-1856) – Abendlied, opus 85, no. 12, arranged for voice, violin and piano by G. Schröder
The original version of Abendlied is from the piano duets, opus 85, popular in arrangements for treble instrument with piano accompaniment, but performed on this programme as a setting of a text by the German poet, theologian, art historian, archaeologist, and sometime revolutionary Johann Gottfried Kinkel (1815-1882). By and large, the original musical material of one piano part has been redistributed for the two treble parts (voice and violin), while the accompaniment retains the material of the second piano. The tone is that of an adult lullaby, seeking consolation as well as rest for a weary heart, and the mature restrained romanticism of Schumann’s music matches it perfectly.
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Mieczyslaw Kolinski (1901-1981) – Lyric Sextet for voice, flute and string quartet (1929)
Kolinski was born in Poland, and studied composition and ethnomusicology in Berlin before moving to Brussels (1938) and New York (1951); he then taught ethnomusicology at the University of Toronto from 1966 to 1976. His work on the scientific foundations of music anticipated Hindemith’s, and his own compositional style may be described as modernist, but without explicit attachment to any particular “school”. The Lyric Sextet sets five poems by German-language poets of the late 19th and early 20th centuries: Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), Herman Hesse (1877-1962), Wilhelm von Scholz (1874-1969), Else Lasker-Schüler (1869-1945), and Otto Julius Bierbaum (1865-1910). The tone of the texts ranges from relatively gentle longing to erotic nostalgia, and the vocal part conveys these emotions in restless and angular melodies. The string quartet provides, for the most part, a chamber-orchestra accompaniment to the voice, while the flute shifts between an orchestral role and a counterpoint to the voice and its textual expression.
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Adolf Busch (1891-1952) – Three Songs, opus 3a, for voice, viola, and piano
Best known as a violinist and chamber musician, Adolf Busch left his native Germany for Switzerland after the rise of Hitler, and eventually settled in Vermont. His violin students included Yehudi Menuhin and Isaac Stern, and his brother was the conductor Fritz Busch; he frequently collaborated with the pianist Rudolf Serkin. The little-known songs on this programme date from 1922, and the interplay between controlled chromaticism and dense counterpoint reflects the influence of Max Reger. Especially in the first song, a setting of Emanuel Geibel’s Nun die Schatten dunkeln, and the third, Heinrich Heine’s Aus den Himmelsaugen, the vocal part is rhythmically straightforward, while the viola and piano provide the forward impetus; the middle setting, of Goethe’s famous Wonne der Wehmut, is a more equal partnership.
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Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828) – Mignon, arranged for voice and string quartet by Aribert Reimann
Schubert produced an extraordinary number of settings of the poignantly romantic lyrics from Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, most of them for solo voice and piano. These lyrics are associated with two characters in the novel, the mad Harfenspieler, or “Harper”, and his fragile, waif-like daughter Mignon. In 1995, the German composer Aribert Reimann (b.1936) selected three of Schubert’s early Mignon pieces, Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt, Heiss mich nicht reden, and So lasst mich scheinen bis ich werde, and “compiled and transcribed” them as a continuous, organically connected mini-cantata for voice and string quartet, which follows Mignon through her longing for an absent lover, passionate secrecy, and anticipation of release in death. The delicate sensitivity of Reimann’s arrangement reflects his extensive experience not only as a composer, but also as a distinguished accompanist of Lieder, most notably in performances with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, for whom many of his original works were written.
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Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) – Die junge Magd, opus 23b, for voice, flute, clarinet and string quartet
This song cycle was written in 1922, when Hindemith was 27, on poems by the Austrian Expressionist poet Georg Trakl, who had committed suicide at the same age in 1914. Trakl struggled all his short adult life with depression and drug addiction, and his dark experiences caring for wounded men during the first months of World War I ultimately overcame his equilibrium. The six poems which make up Die junge Magd depict the tragic and helpless coming of age of a nameless village girl; her voice is never heard, and her emotional state is traced primarily through descriptions of the world around her. Hindemith’s settings echo the many sounds imagined in Trakl’s texts: birdsong, the wind, the strokes of the blacksmith’s hammer. The straightforward lyricism of the opening soon gives way to agonized chromaticism, and the instrumental forces are used in a variety of combinations and textures to reflect the shifting emotional landscape of the mute protagonist.
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Franz Peter Schubert – Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, D. 965 / opus 129, for voice, clarinet and piano
Der Hirt auf dem Felsen is probably best described as a Lied-cantata, a setting of texts by Wilhelm Müller and Helmina von Chézy which depict a wandering shepherd’s anticipation at the prospect of seeing his absent love once more, with the arrival of spring. The melodic lines are virtuosic and effervescent, with the solo clarinet representing, perhaps, the shepherd’s rapturously vivid memory of his beloved. The piece was composed in 1828, Schubert’s final year; despite his deteriorating health this was a tremendously productive period, during which he also composed Schwanengesang, the String Quintet in C major, and several major works for piano. Der Hirt auf dem Felsen was written for Anna Milder-Hauptmann, to whom Schubert’s brother Ferdinand sent it after the composer’s death.
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Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949) – Morgen, opus 27, no. 4, for voice, violin and piano
Morgen! is the last of Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder, which were composed in 1894; the composer orchestrated it in 1897, with a rhapsodic solo violin obbligato which also forms part of the arrangement performed on this programme. The vocal part balances textual expression with pure melody in the sophisticated semi-recitative style which was so characteristic of Strauss’ later vocal and operatic music. The ardent and luminous text is by John Henry Mackay (1864-1933), who grew up and worked all his adult life in Germany, although he was born in Scotland to a Scottish father and a German mother.
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