DE 3029 - Delos Productions, Inc.

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NOTES ON THE PROGRAM The little-known Pastorale by Aaron Copland (b. 1900) is one of the composer’s earliest works, written in April 1921, just before Copland left for Paris to study with the redoubtable Nadia Boulanger. Commenting later on the song, Copland wrote that “it seem[ed] to me to show the beginnings of a musical personality, at least in terms of rhythmic feeling, frequent meter changes, and sense of form.” The first performance was given by the American tenor Charles Hubbard and Boulanger in December 1921 at one of Boulanger’s Société Musique des Indépendants concerts, earning Copland his first favorable reviews as a composer. The text is drawn from the folk poetry of Kafiristan, a mountainous Afghani region. Since you love me and I love you The rest matters not. I will cut grass in the fields And you will sell it for beasts. Since you love me and I love you The rest matters not. I will sow maize in the fields and you will sell it for people. -From the poetry of Kafiristan -Translation by E. Powys Mathers Richard Strauss (1864-1949) wrote more than 200 lieder, which span the composer’s entire career. His first efforts date from his seventh year; the final glorious outpouring came in the Four Last Songs of 1948. But the bulk of Strauss’s songs (including both songs recorded here) were composed between 1885 and 1908, during the same period as virtually all of his symphonic poems as well as the first two mature operas, Salome, and Elektra. Many of these songs were written for the composer’s wife, the soprano Pauline de Ahna, who was then in the midst of a flourishing career, often touring with her husband as pianist. Like Schubert, Strauss was often unselective in his choice of texts; some of his finest songs are settings of surprisingly uninspired poems. As the composer himself explained, his chief consideration was to find words which stirred a musical reaction. “Musical ideas have prepared themselves in me — God knows why — and when, as it were, the barrel is full, a song appears in the twinkling of an eye as soon as I come across a poem more or less corresponding to the subject of an imaginary song …” Ständchen, one of the composer’s best known songs, dates from 1887. Mach’ auf, mach’ auf, doch leise mein Kind um Keinen vom Schlummer zu wecken, kaum murmelt der Bach, kaum zittert im Wind ein Blatt an den Büschen und Hecken. Open up! Open up, but softly, my child so as to wake no one from slumber! The brook hardly murmurs, hardly a leaf on bush or hedge trembles in the wind! The early years of the 20th century saw an extraordinary flourishing of Spanish songs, due in large part to the works of such composers as Falla, Turina and Fernando Obradors (1897-1945), who looked to folk song tradition as a primary inspiration. Not surprisingly, Obradors’ Del cabello más sutil is identified as one of the composer’s “cantares populares.” Del cabello más sutil Que tienes en tu trenzado He de hacer une cadena Para traerte a mi lado. Una alcarraza en tu casa, Chiquilla, quisiera ser, Para besarte en la boca, Cuando fueras a beber. Of the softest hair Which you wear in braids I shall make a chain to draw you to my side. A jug in your house, My darling, I would like to be, To kiss your lips, When you take a drink. Like his contemporary and friend Heitor Villa-Lobos, the Brazilian Jayme Ovalle (1894- 1955) drew upon his native musical traditions, writing artful folk-song arrangements as well as original songs which conveyed a folk-like charm, as evident in the bewitching Azulão. Vai, Azulão, Azulão, companheiro, vai! Vai ver minha ingrata, Diz que sem elo Sertão não é mais sertão! Ai! võa Azulão, vai contar companheiro, vai! -Manuel Bandeira Go, bluebird, my companion, go! Go and see my ungrateful love, say that without her the forest is no longer the forest! Alas, fly bluebird, go and tell her, my companion, go! Drum leise mein Mädchen, dass nichts sich regt, nur leise die Hand auf die Klinke gelegt. Mit Tritten, wie Tritte der Elfen so sacht, um über die Blumen zu hüpfen, Flieg’ leicht hinaus in die Mondscheinnacht zu mir in den Garten zu schlüpfen. Rings schlummern die Blüthen am rieselnden Bach und duften im Schlaf, nur die Liebe ist wach. Sitz’ nieder, hier, dämmerts geheimnisvoll unter den Linden bäumen, die Nachtigall uns zu Häupten soll von uns’ren Küssen träumen. und die Rose, wenn sie am Morgen erwacht, hoch glühn hoch glühn von den Wonne schaudern der Nacht. -A.F. von Schack All around softly, my dear, so that nothing is disturbed, lay your hand gently on the door handle. As gently as the steps of elves, skipping gingerly over flowers, fly easily out into the moon-filled night and glide to me in the garden. All around, the blossoms by the rippling brook are slumbering, even in sleep emitting fragrance, only Love is awake! Sit down; here, under the linden trees the twilight falls mysteriously. The nightingale above our heads shall dream of our kisses. and the rose, when she awakes in the morning, shall glow sublimely from the blissful raptures of the night. -Translation by Bejun Mehta
Joseph Marx (1882-1964) came of age musically in the Vienna of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern but he remained a resolute conservative in his stylistic leanings, taking Wolf, Bruckner, Reger and Brahms as his models. Although the composer spent much of his career as an influential educator and critic, he left behind a considerable legacy of songs. Ironically, Marx used many of the same texts as Schoenberg and his circle, even writing his own setting of Pierrot Lunaire. Selige Nacht (1915) similarly is based on the same poem as the sixth of Berg’s Seven Early Songs. Im Arm der Liebe schliefen wir selig ein, asleep. Am offnen Fenster lauschte der Sommerwind, Und unsrer Atemzüge Frieden trug er hinaus in die helle Mondnacht. Und aus dem Garten tastete zagend sich ein Rosenduft an unserer Liebe Bett Und gab uns wundervolle Träume, Träume des Rausches, so reich an Sehnsucht. -Otto Erich Hartleben In the arms of love, we blissfully fell The summer wind watched at the open window, and carried out the peace of our every breath to the moonlit night. And from the garden a scent of roses came timidly to our love-bed and gave us wondrous dreams, ecstatic dreams, full of longing. Francis Poulenc (1889-1963) wrote Fleurs as the concluding song of his cycle Fiançailles pour rire (1939), based on poems of Louise de Vilmorin. Poulenc’s settings capture the melancholy mood of the poems, written while de Vilmorin was stranded in Hungary during the first months of World War II. Fleurs promises, arms, fleurs tenues dans tes bras, Fleurs sorties des parenthèses d’un pas Qui t’apportait ces fleurs l’hiver Saupoudrées du sable des mers? Sable de tes baisers, loves. fleurs des amours fanées Les beaux yeux sont de cendre et dans la cheminée Un coeur enrubanné de plaintes Brûle avec ses images saintes. Fleurs promises, fleurs tenues dans tes bras, Qui t’apportait ces fleurs l’hiver Saupoudrées du sable des mers. -Louise de Vilmorin Promised flowers, flowers held in your flowers sprung from footprints. Who brought you these winter flowers, powdered with the sands of the seas? Sands of your kisses, flowers of faded The beautiful eyes are ashes and in the fireplace a heart beribboned with sighs burns with its treasured images. Promised flowers, flowers held in your arms, Who brought you these winter flowers… The Italian conductor and composer Pietro Cimara (1887-1967) drew upon the centuriesold tradition of the Stornello, a popular verse form originating in Tuscany. Although stornelli can be satiric or whimsical in content, the most popular subject is, of course, love. Son come i chicchi della melograna vellutati e vermigli i labbri tuoi gareggiar colla fragola montana pel profumo dell’alito tu puoi. Come le piante che gemme odorate distillano dal tronco e dalla chioma tu stilli dalle tue labbra rosate baci che sono del tuo cor l’aroma. Fammi nutrir di baci si soavi come si nutre di rugiada il fiore: baciami sempre come mi baciavi la prima volta che ti strinsi al core! heart. Se tu fossi rugiada le tue stille di vita altrici negheristi al fior? Baciami dunque, e fa nove scintille flame arder di vita in quest’a rido cor! Son come i chicchi della melograna vellutati e vermigli i labbri tuoi! -Arnaldo Frateili Like pomegranate seeds are your velvet, vermilion lips The scent of your breath competes with the wild mountain strawberries. Like plants which distill jewels from their stems and leaves you, from your rosy lips exude kisses which are the aroma of your heart. Nourish me with such sweet kisses as the flower is nourished with dew: kiss me always as you kissed me the first time that I pressed you to my If you were dew, would you deny your life-giving essence to the flower? Kiss me then, and make new sparks with life in this arid heart? Like pomegranate seeds are your velvet, vermilion lips. -Translation by Debrah Lucchesi The career of the English composer Roger Quilter (1877-1953) has many parallels with that of Percy Grainger, who was one of Quilter’s classmates at the Frankfurt Conservatory in the 1890’s. Quilter’s light orchestral pieces were once staples of Sir Henry Wood’s Promenade Concerts in London but he is best known today for his many songs. Love’s Philosophy (1905), the earlier of the two Shelley settings recorded here, represents the composer at the very beginning of his career; Music, when Soft Voices Die (1927) comes from one of the most productive periods in the composer’s life. MUSIC, WHEN SOFT VOICES DIE Music, when soft voices die, Vibrates in the memory — Odours, when sweet violets sicken, Live within the sense they quicken. Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, Are heap’d for the beloved’s bed; And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, Love itself shall slumber on. -Percy Bysshe Shelley LOVE’S PHILOSOPHY The fountains mingle with the river
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Page 6 and 7: And the rivers with the ocean; The
Page 8 and 9: You ask me to have a discreet heart
Page 10: Before I gaze at you again I’ll n

DE 3029 - Delos Productions, Inc.

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