PROGRAM NOTES

The son of a pianist and a draftsman, Gounod was born in Paris. While studying piano with his mother, his musical talent was discovered. Eventually, he entered the Paris Conservatoire where he studied under Jacques Fromental Halévy, composer of the opera La Juive. At 21, he won the Prix de Rome in 1839 for his cantata Ferdinand and subsequently went to Italy to study the music of Palestrina.

Gounod wrote his first opera, Sapho, in 1851, but had no great success until Faust in 1859. This remains his best-known work, although his opera Roméo et Juliette, premiered in 1867, is also regularly performed and recorded.

From 1870 to 1875 Gounod lived in England, becoming the first conductor of what is now the Royal Choral Society. Much of Gounod's music from this period is vocal or choral. Later in life, Gounod wrote mostly sacred works, including the well-known musical setting of Ave Maria, which was based on the first prelude from Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier by J.S. Bach.

“Que fais-tu, blanche tourterelle,” is from Act III, Scene 2 of Roméo et Juliette. The character Stephano, Romeo’s page, is looking for his master, who might be held captive in the Capulet’s house. Outside their villa, he tries to taunt the Capulet’s by singing of a turtledove (Juliette) in a nest of vultures. He warns them to watch her carefully lest she leave the nest.

In 1789, Haydn – then 56 years old and an experienced composer of 92 symphonies – wrote this cantata for soprano and keyboard. To his English publisher John Bland, Haydn said that he planned to orchestrate the cantata, but he never got around to that task, so it has comes to us in its original form.

This cantata is a scena -- a miniature dramatic scene – that takes as its subject a Greek myth. Ariadne, daughter of Minos the king of Crete, helped Theseus escape from the Cretan labyrinth. Theseus married Ariadne but later abandoned her on the island of Naxos. In the different accounts of the story she is either left to go mad or rescued by Bacchus. The story has rich dramatic possibilities, and it has attracted composers as diverse as Monteverdi, Handel, Massenet, and Martinu, each of whom treats it in quite a different way. The most famous operatic version is Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos of 1912.

The standard form for a scena was the recitative-and-aria, and Haydn repeats that structure here, creating a work in four distinct sections. The piano's lengthy prelude sets the mood for the opening recitative ("Teseo mio ben, dove sei tu?") in which Ariadne wakes and longs for her lover. The opening makes clear the important part the piano plays in this cantata: it is not a simple accompaniment but an active co-participant -- setting scenes, underlining the meaning of the text, and sometimes dramatizing things that Ariadne herself has not yet understood. In the first aria Ariadne calls on the gods to return Theseus to her, the piano subtly drawing attention to her increasing disquiet. The second recitative ("Ma, a chi parlo?") brings Ariadne's emotional collapse. As the reality of her abandonment overtakes her, she alternates between misery and desperate delusion, still hoping that Theseus will re-appear. The final aria ("Ah! che morir vorrei") offers Ariadne's somewhat conventional wish to die, but it is also an expression of her fury, most evident in the Presto that draws the cantata to its fiery close.

Arianna a Naxos was performed several times to great acclaim in London in 1791, during Haydn's first visit to that city.

Adapted from notes by Eric Bromberger © 2005

Britten took his text from A. W. Pollard’s edition of the Chester Mystery Plays, a cycle of mystery plays from the 14th century, and the most complete set of such plays in existence. The plays are based on biblical texts, from Creation to the Last Judgement, and were traditionally presented every year for three days around the festival of Corpus Christi. They were enacted by common guildsmen and craftsmen in improvised settings. Their tone was down-to-earth, informed not just by reverence but also wit and humor. Their first modern performance was in 1951.

Britten wrote the Canticle II in 1952, just after finishing his opera Billy Budd. He often followed the composition of a long work by writing a short piece on a similar theme. The two stories run on parallel tracks: the legally mandated but morally unjust slaughter of an innocent youth forms the core of both the Biblical tale and the opera.

Canticle II is set for two voices (originally tenor, Peter Pears and alto, Kathleen Ferrier). Like all five of Britten’s Canticles, it is written as a multi-part cantata. Abraham and Isaac begins with a mysterious recitative for the "Voice of God" (both voices in rhythmic unison), moving on to a loping duet as father and son climb the hill for the sacrifice. There follows a recitative written in a old-fashioned style with tremolos and chordal punctuation in the piano. This leads to an impassioned agitato duet as Isaac pleads for his life, a gentle pastoral section as he accepts his fate, and a magnificent solemn march like a funeral cortège as Abraham lifts his sword. Then we hear once again the "Voice of God," as Abraham is released from his order to kill his son. The canticle ends with an envoi, as the two voices canonically sing the praises of God.

Britten seems to have had fun setting this medieval text. He evokes the ritual nature of the original plays in music that is simple and rough-hewn. Perhaps his masterstroke is the way he creates the "Voice of God," with both voices sometimes intoning the same pitch and sometimes splitting into thirds and fourths. Britten’s colleague Sir Michael Tippett particularly admired this effect, and complimented him on it. Britten agreed. “Yes, that’s worth a million dollars.”

Adapted from notes by Stephen Blier

Born in Nizhni Novgorod, Russia, Sergei Rachmaninoff was a brilliant pianist, composer and conductor. At age nine he entered the College of Music in St. Petersburg. In 1885, he was sent to the Moscow Conservatory and in 1892, at age nineteen, he graduated with high honors, winning a gold medal for his one-act opera Aleko.

Rachmaninoff's fame and popularity, both as a composer and concert pianist, were launched by his Prelude in C Sharp Minor (1892). His work slowly continued to gain recognition and praise until 1897, when his Symphony No. 1 in D Minor was poorly performed at its premier and the critics condemned it. He suffered a complete loss of self-confidence which left him unable to compose for the next three years.

By 1901, however, he completed his Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor. In 1906, he left Russia to live in Dresden, Germany. There he wrote three of his major scores: the Symphony No. 2 in E Minor (1907), the symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead (1909), and the Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor (1909), composed especially for his first concert tour of the United States, in 1909.

In 1917, he emigrated to New York following the Russian Revolution of 1917. After his departure his music was banned in the Soviet Union for several years. Most of his time in the U.S. was spent performing in order to support his family. He died in 1943, in Beverly Hills, California.

Rachmaninoff’s vocal music was written primarily during his time in Russia. His inspiration was above all lyrical, and with his love of the human voice and sensitivity to verse, it is not surprising that his songs for voice and piano represent a very significant part of his output. The piano parts are always beautifully written, simpler and more straightforward in the earlier songs, and rising to a level of great virtuosity in the Opus. 14 set, then in the later songs the piano tends to merge with the voice in textures which are almost impressionistic. Rachmaninoff’s songs virtually come to an end in 1916 when he left Russian during the Bolshevik revolution – as he was cut off from the sources of Russian verse and from the singers with which he worked so closely.

The first three songs are from Opus 26, written for a performance at the Kruzhoc Lyubitelei Russkoi Musyki (Group for the Performance of Russian Music), founded by Arkady and Maria Kerzin in Moscow (Mme. Kerzina actually supplied Rachmaninoff with many of the poems he set in this cycle). The entire opus consists of 15 songs written between August 14 and September 8 of 1906 in Ivanovka. Several of the texts in this set reflect Rachmaninoff's meditations on the passage of time.

ALL WAS TAKEN FROM ME, Op. 26, No. 2
The text is by Tyutchev, Russia's metaphysical poet, and reflects on consoling love when life is ending.

CHRIST IS RISEN, Op. 26, No. 6
A yearning for a better world is expressed in the recitative "Christ is risen," in which Merezhkovsky's melodramatic and strained tone is reinterpreted with a disciplined feeling in music set to an ancient church melody.

TO MY CHILDREN, Op. 26, No. 7
This song expresses parental love. Here Rachmaninoff is much less concerned with pure melody, but sets the text very freely in a lilting recitative-like manner.

The next song is from Opus 8, a set of six songs composed in the autumn of 1893 and set to Ukranian and German poems translated into Russian by Alexey Pleshcheyev.

DUMA, Op. 8, No. 3
Duma (translated from Taras Schevchenko) is in the form of an operatic monologue and was composed for Leonid Yakovlev, a singer at the Maryinsky Theater in St. Petersberg. A duma is a traditional poetic or musical reflection, here a reflection on the passage of time and the artist's lack of inspiration when he live's without experiencing life's joys or sorrows. The reflection-monologue has a musical similarity to the work of Musorgsky, as the intonation of the vocal part follows the intonation of the spoken.

Rachmaninoff's third cycle of songs, written in 1896, is diverse in thematic material. The texts used by the composer in this cycle are also of diverse poetic significance. He sets to music poems by established authors of the nineteenth century as well as texts by popular poets of the time.

OH, DO NOT GRIEVE, Op. 14, No. 8
Written to words by Alexei Apukhtin, this song was composed for Nadezhda Alexandrovea, a singer and sister of Anna Lodyzhenskaya. The song is reminiscent of the elegaic and lyrical romances of Tchaikovsky, with a softness of the vocal melody. The elegy is sung by a woman and is one of several of Rachmaninoff's songs that interpret a woman's gift to console and to comfort.

adapted from notes by Natalia Challis, The Singer's Rachmaninoff

Born in Zwickau, Germany, Robert Schumann began his musical education on the piano. The son of a bookseller, he began to experiment with composition at an early age, and also cultivated a passion for poetry and literature. By the age of twenty, Schumann was studying piano in Leipzig. Although a hand injury prevented him from pursuing a career as a keyboard virtuoso, he found a niche writing music criticism – and composing. In 1834, he founded the New Journal for Music and served as its editor for the next nine years; the publication attacked what Schumann felt were the shallow and inconsequential musical practices of the day. On the positive side, he recognized the brilliance of Chopin and Brahms.

Meanwhile, Schumann continued to compose and in 1835 he fell in love with his former piano teacher's sixteen-year-old daughter, Clara Wieck. Although her father was opposed, the couple persevered and were married in 1840. That year was Schumann's happiest as a composer. But the happiness and creative fire were not to last. In the early 1840s, Schumann began to suffer from mental illness, most likely from the effects of syphilis. In 1850, the Schumanns moved to Düsseldorf, the home town of Heinrich Heine. After several increasingly unproductive and unhappy years, Schumann attempted suicide, and was committed to an asylum in Bonn. There he died, aged 46, on July 29, 1856.

The first two songs by Robert Schumann come from the Spanisches Liederspiel, Op. 74, a cycle of songs set for four voices – soprano, contralto, tenor and bass – to a set of Spanish poems translated into German by Emanuel Geibel (1815-1884).

ERSTE BEGEGNUNG (First Encounter), Op. 74, No. 1
A translation of 'Del rosal vengo, mi madre' by Gil Vicente (1465-1536), in this song, a girl shares her first encounter with a young man on the banks of the river (and some rose-bushes) with her mother. The breathless excitement of the "young" girl, experiencing her first attention from the young man, is communicated through the brief musical statements by the singers (echoed by the piano). The women’s voices sing mainly in thirds and sixths, giving this duet a "folk" quality.

BOTSCHAFT (Message), Op. 74, No. 8
Written in the bolero style, this translation of the Spanish 'Cojo jazmin y clavel' tells of another young woman, weaving a garland of jasmine and carnations to send to her lover. The trills and flourishes heard in the right hand of the piano suggest the delicate weaving of the flowers as well as their intoxicating fragrance. The continuous bolero rhythm in the left hand of the piano creates an ongoing tension suggesting unrequited love.

The third song by Schumann is a lively duet composed to a text by Christian Frieddrich Hebbel, number 15 in an anthology of 28 songs published as Op. 79, Liederalbum für die Jugend.

DAS GLÜCK (Happiness), Op. 79, No. 15
While this text talks of catching and holding onto a little bird, it appears to be a more of a statement on the delicate balance of finding and holding onto true love.

Brahms was born in Hamburg, Germany. His father, who gave him his first music lessons, was a double bassist. Brahms showed early promise on the piano and helped to supplement the rather meager family income by playing piano in restaurants and theaters, as well as by teaching. At twenty he began touring as an accompanist and began to make important contacts. Among these were Robert and Clara Schumann, both of whom had a lasting effect on his life and career.

Schumann was an admirer of Brahms' and, through articles championing the young composer, played an important role in alerting the public to the young man's compositions. Brahms also became acquainted with Schumann's wife, the composer and pianist Clara, 14 years his senior, with whom he carried on a lifelong, emotionally passionate, but always platonic relationship. Brahms never married.

Starting in the 1860's, when his works sold widely, Brahms was financially quite successful. He preferred a modest life style, however, living in a simple three-room apartment with a housekeeper. He gave away much of his money to relatives, and also anonymously helped support a number of young musicians.

Generally considered the greatest choral composer of the 19th century, Brahms wrote many more vocal works than instrumental music throughout his career. Over 200 solo songs remain in the repertoire, with almost as many for small vocal ensembles and duets. Franz Schubert was Brahms’s main source for the lied. From 1866-72, the composer devoted himself to writing vocal music almost exclusively. Writing in folksong style was Brahms’s ideal, and German folksong highly affected his lieder.

PHÄNOMEN (Phenonmenon), Op. 61, No. 3
Set to text by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), this lush duet uses the imagery of a colorful rainbow seen as white through the fog, or mist, of maturity, “…although your hair is white, you will still love.” This text was also set beautifully by Hugo Wolf in his Goethe-Lieder, no. 32.

WALPURGISNACHT (Night of Walpurgis), Op. 75
This dialogue between a mother and her child, takes place after the Walpurgisnacht – the night when allegedly the witches hold a large celebration on the Blocksberg and await the arrival of Spring. On this night witches are believed to ride on broomsticks and he-goats to places of old pagan sacrifices in the Harz Mountains. Historically the Walpurgisnacht is derived from Pagan spring customs, where the arrival of spring was celebrated with bonfires at night (from April 30 to May 1). In this dialogue, the child questions her mother about the events of the evening, and slowly it becomes apparent that her mother is, indeed, one of the witches.