Giuseppe Martucci: Cantava il ruscello (The little brook sang)

O... la pace fedel de la foresta!

For me, Martucci’s song cycle La Canzone dei Ricordi (The Song of Memories) was a wonderful discovery. These beautifully crafted songs call to mind the music of Puccini, and it surprises me that they are not performed more often. The second song, presented here, with its undulating harmonies in the accompaniment suggest not only rushing water the title might suggest, but also the spring breezes, and even the underlying emotional excitement that comes with the arrival of spring.

• Audio (Brigitte Balleys) – last.fm
• Text (Rocco Emanuele Pagliarda) – recmusic.org
• Score – IMSLP

New translation behind cut:

Recital announcement

My apologies for the dearth of posts lately. Instead of writing this blog, I have been finishing my doctoral thesis. I also made a trip to my hometown for my Goddaughter’s first communion, and more recently, interviewed for an interim professor position. With those things done, I will return to posting tomorrow.

In other news, I am preparing Georges Auric’s Huit poèmes de Jean Cocteau for an upcoming lecture recital. The poetry is DENSE, but the music takes it and runs with it. Characteristic of the works of Les Six, Auric’s songs are both meaningful and humorous. If you are in the Twin Cities, I cordially invite you to the performance!

“The Poetry of Jean Cocteau in Song”

Andrew Fleser, Lecturer and Pianist
with Paul Hindemith, Baritone and others

University of Minnesota
Ferguson Hall’s Ultan Recital Hall

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

7:30 PM

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Easter

The cross taught all wood to resound his name

Rise heart; thy Lord is risen. Sing his praise
Without delays,
Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
With him may’st rise;
That, as his death calcined thee to dust,
His life may make thee gold, and much more, Just.

Awake, my lute, and struggle for thy part
With all thy art.
The cross taught all wood to resound his name
Who bore the same.
His stretched sinews taught all strings, what key
Is best to celebrate this most high day.

Consort both heart and lute, and twist a song
Pleasant and long:
Or since all music is but three parts vied,
And multiplied;
O let thy blessed Spirit bear a part,
And make up our defects with his sweet art.

–George Herbert

• Audio (Simon Keenlyside) – last.fm
• Video (St. Matthew’s Choir) – YouTube
• Text (George Herbert) – recmusic.org
• Score – artsongcentral.com

William Walton: Holy Thursday

O what a multitude they seemed, these flowers of London town!

Today is Holy Thursday or Maundy Thursday, given your tradition. It is the day of the Last Supper and of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. I will be in Church this evening, singing in the choir and watching the crowds and the stately procession, just like Walton captures in this song.

• Audio (Felicity Lott) – last.fm
• Text (William Blake)- recmusic.org

Johannes Brahms: Blinde Kuh (Blind man’s bluff)

Ach, sie versteckt sich immer, daß ich verschmachten soll!

Love is a game, making children out of the best of us.  Brahms manages to capture the image of children chasing each other in a game of blind man’s bluff (or literally, “blind cow”) with the perpetual motion of the running sixteenth notes in the piano. The singer sneaks around as well, particularly in the beginning, before simply crying out for the game to stop at the end.

• Audio (Elisabeth Schumann) – last.fm
• Text (August Kopisch) & Translation – recmusic.org
• Score – IMSLP

Robert Coningsby Clarke: The Blind Ploughman

"Let the little birds of faith come and nest therein"

This gem be Robert Coningsby Clarke (or possibly Conigsby Clarke) may be his only musical legacy — he is not even mentioned in Baker’s Biographical Dictionary, which is usually exhaustive. Regardless, it is one of my favorite pieces to give baritones early in their study. The text is inspirational and the music is dramatic and compelling.

• Audio (Paul Robeson) – last.fm
• Video (Nelson Eddy) – YouTube
• Score- National Library of Australia

There are few recordings of this, and I find Robeson’s to be the best, with Eddy’s a close second. Though expressive, Feodor Chaliapin’s voice and English leave something to be desired, but I feel I should mention it because of his phenomenal career on stage and screen.

I’ve submitted the text to recmusic.org, but until it’s published, I present it here.

Gabriel Fauré: En prière (In Prayer)

"Do not abandon me. Give me the needed gentleness to ease suffering"

On this Passion Sunday, Mark’s Gospel shows Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane while the disciples wait, or rather, sleep. Though the text of this prayer is Bourdèse’s, the image of Jesus desiring Calvary in order to ease suffering seems so organic and so appropriate for today.

• Video (Sonia Theodoridou) – YouTube
• Text (Stéphan Bordèse) & Translation – recmusic.org
• Score – WIMA

Edvard Grieg: Jeg elsker dig (I love you / Ich liebe dich)

"Thought of my thoughts alone have you become"

The thought of being so in love with someone that you want to be near them into eternity is quite romantic, so romantic, in fact, that once Grieg set Hans Christian Andersen’s poem Jeg elsker dig to music, it soon had multiple singing translations in German, English, and other languages (I have located numerous editions, all widely published and performed, with no less than two in German and five in English!) The song was included in the 1944 operetta Song of Norway by Robert Wright and George Forrest.

• Streaming recordings
  • in Danish (Barbara Hendricks) – last.fm
  • in Danish (Lauritz Melchior) – YouTube (at 1:28)
  • in German (Kirsten Flagstad) – last.fm
  • in German (Sumi Jo) – YouTube
  • in English, from Song of Norway (Helena Bliss) – last.fm
  • in English (Nelson Eddy) – YouTube
• Text (Hans Christian Andersen) & Translation – recmusic.org
• Scores (Op. 5 page) – IMSLP
  • Original Danish Text
  • Original Danish Text (Grieg’s Manuscript!)
  • English & German Translation
  • German Translation (with added second verse)
• Article on Song of Norway – Wikipedia

Hermann Bemberg: Chant Hindou (Hindu Song)

The Temple of Brahma in Pushkar

The West has always had a fascination with the East, and in the Romantic period,  “Orientalism” in the arts was a particularly strong trend. Hermann Bemberg’s Chant Hindou was quite popular as a result, though the music itself shows little to no eastern influence. Today, Bemberg would be called a one-hit wonder, Chant Hindou being his hit song.

• Video (Nellie Melba) – YouTube (begins at 3:24)
• Score – artsongcentral.com
• Text (Armand Ocampo) – recmusic.org
• Article on Brahma – Wikipedia

A note on this recording: There are no indications in the music that the interludes in this piece should move along at a quicker pace than the rest of the music as they do here. I presume this is due to the 78 RPM disc on which it was recorded — in order not to go beyond the disc’s three-minute length, tempi were often incredibly quick, particularly in piano interludes.

There is no translation at recmusic, so I have submitted one. It appears below:

Antonio Vivaldi: Vedrò con mio diletto (I will see with delight)

"Soul of my soul, heart of my heart"

Researching yesterday’s post, I discovered countertenor Philippe Jaroussky (well, I guess he was “discovered” long before yesterday, lol!). I am so taken with his voice and interpretation, particularly of this aria. The strings staccato playing are a lovely counterpoint to Jaroussky’s angelic voice.

• Video (Philippe Jaroussky) – YouTube (begins :55)
• Text (Anon.) & Translation – recmusic.org

There is an audio recording on last.fm, but there’s something much more exciting and spontaneous in the live performance. Perhaps the nerves leading up to his announcement of French Singer of 2007 had something of an intensifying effect?