Giovanni Maria Bononcini: Deh piú a me non v’ascondete (Hide from me no more)

by Paul J Everett (under Creative Commons)

“You could bring this soul out of sorrow”

When it comes to teaching, I’ve got the 24 Italian Songs and Arias down, but there are quite a few out of the Anthology of Italian Song of the 17th & 18th Centuries that I’m not as familiar with. Playing them through at the piano is one thing, but hearing is quite another. “Italian Thursday” will be heavily weighted toward exploring this volume in the coming weeks.

Bononcini’s Hide from me no more has both a grace and a playfulness to it. Dame Janet Baker’s is on the graceful side, while this unknown recording on YouTube tends toward the playful. The music, with its running notes at the end of phrases, seems to suggest the “sorrow” the singer mentions isn’t terribly serious.

• Audio (Dame Janet Baker) – Rhapsody
• Text (Anon.) – recmusic.org
• Score – artsongcentral.com

Translation behind cut

Emmanuel Chabrier: L’île heureuse (The happy isle)

"We are the monarchs of luminous maritime deserts"

This song positively sparkles! The light glints off the water while the boats rock gently in the waves. Amid this scenery painted by the piano, the voice moves very much like the impassioned lovers it represents — at times impulsive, at others, tender and caressing.

• Audio (Martyn Hill) – Rhapsody
• Text & Translation (Éphraïm Mikhaël) – recmusic.org
• Score – IMSLP
• Article on Chabrier – wikipedia

Ralph Vaughan Williams: The Call

"Such a heart as joys in love"

The fourth movement of Vaughan Williams’s Five Mystical Songs for choir and baritone soloist, full of light and festivity, calls to mind the joyful banquet of heaven.  I particularly enjoy the recording of the St. Paul’s Cathedral Choristers because the purity of the voices seems appropriate for the music.

• Audio (Choristers of St. Paul’s Cathedral) – last.fm
• Score & Text (George Herbert) – artsongcentral.com