mendelssohn: complete songs

volume
1
MENDELSSOHN: COMPLETE SONGS
Malcolm Martineau piano
Sophie Bevan
Mary Bevan
Robin Tritschler
Jonathan McGovern
Allan Clayton
Benjamin Appl
TRACK LISTING
SCHEIDEND OP.9 NO.6
REISELIED OP.19 NO.6
MORGENGRUß OP.47 NO.2
AN DIE ENTFERNTE OP.71 NO.3
DAS HEIMWEH OP.8 NO.2
WANDERLIED OP.57 NO.6
Sophie Bevan
Robin Tritschler
Robin Tritschler
Robin Tritschler
Jonathan McGovern
Jonathan McGovern
03’15
03’02
02’12
01’27
02’42
02’03
7
8
9
10
11
FRÜHLINGSLIED OP.8 NO.6
DAS ERSTE VEILCHEN OP.19 NO.2
IM FRÜHLING OP.9 NO.4
FRÜHLINGSLIED OP.34 NO.3
FRÜHLINGSLIED OP.47 NO.3
Mary Bevan
Sophie Bevan
Jonathan McGovern
Jonathan McGovern
Jonathan McGovern
02’21
02’32
02’04
03’03
02’37
12
13
14
15
LIED ZUM GEBURTSTAGE
SELTSAM, MUTTER GEHR ES MIR
SANFT WEH'N IM HAUCH DER ABENDLUFT
WEIHNACHTSLIED
Robin Tritschler
Mary Bevan
Robin Tritschler
Mary Bevan
01’18
01’49
02’51
02’55
1
2
3
4
5
6
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
ERNTELIED OP.8 NO.4
PILGERSPRUCH OP.8 NO.5
MAIENLIED OP.8 NO.7
ALTDEUTSCHES LIED OP.57 NO.1
JAGDLIED OP.84 NO.3
FRÜHLINGSLIED OP.19 NO.1
HÜT DU DICH
23
24
25
26
NO.1 ICH WOLLT’ MEINE LIEB’ ERGÖSSE SICH
NO.2 ABSCHIEDSLIED DER ZUGVÖGEL
NO.3 GRUSS: WOHIN ICH GEH’ UND SCHAUE
NO.4 HERBSTLIED: ACH,
WIE SO BALD VERHALLET DER REIGEN
NO.5 VOLKSLIED: O SAH’ ICH AUF DER
HAIDE DORT IM STURME DICH
NO.6 MAIGLÖCKCHEN UND DIE BLÜMELEIN
Benjamin Appl
Benjamin Appl
Mary Bevan
Allan Clayton
Benjamin Appl
Sophie Bevan
Mary Bevan
03’13
01’54
02’02
02’35
02’35
01’18
02’23
Sophie and Mary Bevan
27
28
01’56
02’20
02’15
02’01
02’13
02’02
Total playing time: 65’05
Produced & Engineered by Andrew Mellor
Edited & Mastered by Andrew Mellor
Recorded on 2nd–5th April 2012, 29th–31st October 2013 in the Music Room, Champs Hill, West Sussex, UK
German Language Coach: Gerhard Gall
Cover Image courtesy of Lebrecht Music & Arts
Executive Producer for Champs Hill Records: Alexander Van Ingen
Label Manager for Champs Hill Records: John Dickinson
FOREWORD
MENDELSSOHN: COMPLETE SONGS
I have always had a real affection for Felix Mendelssohn, maybe because we share a
birthday! Ever since I learnt the G minor piano concerto as a teenager, I have loved
his exuberance and his ability to write wonderful melodies.
INTRODUCTION
He has been unjustly neglected as a song composer in comparison with his more
tortured contemporaries, but he has his own distinctive voice and it is wrong to
think of him only as the composer of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He can provide
sunshine like no one else in his Songs of Spring, and yet he can also plumb the
depths of emotion in his settings of Goethe and Eichendorff in songs such as Die
Liebende schreibt and Nachtlied. Indeed, many of his darker songs can stand proudly
beside the greatest of Schumann’s renowned Lieder. Furthermore, Mendelssohn also
has a similar knack to Schubert with strophic songs, providing music which can
express three or four different sets of words extremely successfully without any
sense of repetition.
I have hoped to show the immense variety in Mendelssohn’s song output by inviting
a group of wonderfully imaginative young singers to join me for this recording. Many
of them had not sung Mendelssohn Lieder before, and were all surprised and
delighted with their songs; I hope that you are too, as you listen to this disc, the
first in a series which will record both Felix Mendelssohn and Fanny Mendelssohn’s
complete song works.
Malcolm Martineau
Until recently, the songs of Felix and Fanny Hensel were subjected to threefold
diminishment or outright damnation: first, anti-Semitism did its best to decry the
originality of artists born Jewish, certain critics dismissed the songs as Victorian
parlour music without the depths of a Schubert or Schumann, and Fanny Hensel was
consigned to the special obscurity designated for 19th-century women who sought
composition as their vocation. In addition, her works were often wrongly described as
carbon copies of her brother’s style when in fact, she has a complex voice of her own
now being properly recognised. With the dark clouds of history in abeyance, both
scholarly and recording projects such as this one are paying homage to the manysplendoured songs created by a brother–sister pair like none other.
SONGS OF JOURNEYS, DEPARTURES AND GREETINGS FROM AFAR
Given a cultivated, well-to-do family, the Mendelssohns, especially Felix, were able to
travel, and journeys are a frequent theme in the poetic texts they chose for songs. The
twelve songs of Op.9, like those of Op.8, were published in two Hefte, or little volumes,
the first entitled ‘The Youth’ and songs 7-12 entitled ‘The Maiden’. Scheidend is the last
song in the first booklet; in this gentle barcarolle, the persona welcomes leaving home,
past sorrows, and youth behind in order to journey to ‘a distant land’ – terrestrial or
celestial? After the calm beginning, tensions appear at the invocation of sorrow and
only dissolve back to tranquillity at the end of each stanza. The Op.19 setting of the
German-Bohemian poet Egon Ebert’s Reiselied is more agitated: the journeying persona
bids the waters carry his ardent messages back to the beloved. Mendelssohn
underscores the difference between present sorrows and past forgetfulness of pain with
near-savage accents and a high pitch on the word ‘Schmerzen’ (sorrows) that we hear
as almost a shriek.
Both Felix and Fanny knew the great poet Heinrich Heine personally, and Fanny
distrusted him in any capacity not poetic. ‘Heine is here, and I do not like him at all,
he is so affected’, she wrote to Karl Klingemann in 1829. And yet, ‘ ... though for ten
times you may be inclined to despise him, the eleventh time you cannot help
confessing that he is a poet, a true poet!’ Her brother’s Morgengruss tells us that Felix
understood Heine’s distinctive irony but sought to temper it. Here, Heine combines the
Romantic themes of a lover’s farewell and a morning serenade beneath her window in
order to stick pins in both traditions: she doesn’t hear him, and the lover consoles
himself by insisting that surely she dreams of him. Mendelssohn’s persona, sweeter than
the poet’s, repeats his farewell – to no avail – and insists over and over again on
himself as the subject of her dreams.
SONGS OF SPRING
Of all 19th-century composers, Felix Mendelssohn was perhaps the most addicted to
spring songs, and we hear six of them – there are more – on this first disc. The
Frühlingslied, Op.8, No.6, is a setting of a poem in Swabian dialect by Friederike Robert,
who was for a brief while tutored by the Romantic writer Justinus Kerner in Swabia. We
hear springtime delight in the exultant octave leaps at the end of the first phrase for
stanzas 1 and 2, also in the bird-song trills and flourishes for the piano throughout the
second stanza.
An die Entfernte is one of Felix’s final works, composed against the backdrop of his grief
over Fanny’s death on May 14, 1847. Lenau’s poetic imagery of withered roses and a
beloved woman far away, the poet’s exhortation not to journey away from love,
produced this tender gem, in which Mendelssohn lingers at the end on the ‘sweet sound’
of the nightingale’s song lingering on the west wind.
The bouquet of violets at the end of Frühlingslied is our link to Das erste Veilchen on a
poem by a prolific Bohemian writer named Egon Ebert. Time moves swiftly in this finely
wrought song: in the first half, the persona joyfully hails the first violet of spring, and
the music ascends in stages to springtime ecstasy. When the violet dies, surrounded by
summer’s blossoms, the narrator first calls for an evocative silence, then brings the
flower and its music back to life in a dream of spring.
Fanny’s setting of her talented, beautiful friend Friederike Robert’s poem Das Heimweh is
our first song by her on this series. Fanny’s strophic setting of Friederike’s poem (Heine
called ‘Rike’ ‘a cousin of the Venus de Milo’), part impassioned outcry, part diagnostic
manual on the physical effects of homesickness, already conveys a different approach to
song composition than her brother’s; witness the chromatic complexities of the initial
phrase, typical of her style.
Im Frühling from Op.9 on a poem by the Mendelssohns’ tutor and friend Johann Gustav
Droysen (he was only a year older than Felix) has all the ingredients of a classic
Mendelssohn spring song: rustling motion; rising lines to tell of rising excitement;
throbbing chords to underscore springtime ecstasy; and key words prolonged in the
vocal line while the piano moves delightedly underneath (‘süss’/sweet, ‘sehnt’/yearns).
One of the poets most beloved by 19th-century composers was Joseph von Eichendorff,
who held fast to Romanticism while history – the Industrial Revolution, the increasing
displacement of aristocratic power by modern bureaucracies – moved past him. In his
sonorous verse, a small repertory of recurring words – ‘Frühling’ (spring), ‘Grund’
(ground), ‘Haus’ (house), ‘Stimmen’ (voices), ‘Wald’ (forest), and more – act as mutable
ciphers for a cosmos made magical by the power of poetry. In the Wanderlied, a young
Romantic poet is lured into the wide world of poetic imagery, with no idea where the
journey will lead him: this is Romanticism in a nutshell, its ecstasy given sounding life
in Mendelssohn’s setting.
Johann Heinrich Voss (the ‘German Homer’) was principally famed for his translations of
the Illiad and the Odyssey into German, but he wrote original poetry as well, including
the irresistible Im Grünen. Mendelssohn sets this paean to the outdoors as the essence
of Schwung (lilt) and thrumming springtime vitality, with a fanfare in the piano at the
start and the repeated vaults into the high treble for the singer that are one hallmark
of a Mendelssohnian spring song.
The diplomat–poet Karl Klingemann, who was both a better-than-average dilettante
composer and an amateur poet, was another friend who supplied Fanny and Felix with
texts. May every springtime be announced by Mendelssohn’s irresistible dotted fanfares
in the bass line of this Frühlingslied; each of the three stanzas ends with the same
refrain about ‘an old, sweet dream’, and for that brief moment, springtime vivacity gives
way to hints of minor mode (to tell of distance in time) and a touch of soft solemnity.
With the Frühlingslied from Op.47, we again encounter Lenau, whose more characteristic
‘Weltschmerz’ (world-weariness) gives way to pulsating, utterly joyous love in spring.
Mendelssohn pairs stanzas 1 and 2 to make a musical strophe, repeated for stanzas 3–4
and 5–6; the rise to an ecstatic high pitch for ‘the full dance of life’, ‘a sweet song of
hope’, and ‘the power of spring’ are made unforgettable in this, one of the most famous
of all spring songs.
THE BOY MENDELSSOHN
It was not until 2008 that many of the young Felix’s songs were first published,
including the charmingly naïve Lied zum Geburtstage meines guten Varters, composed as
a gift for Abraham Mendelssohn on his birthday in December 1819: this is Felix’s first
extant song. The existence of Seltsam, Mutter, geht es mir only became known in 2007,
when it appeared for sale in a Sotheby’s catalogue; it was part of a manuscript inscribed
by its recipient Agnes Rauch (1804–1881), later godmother to Fanny’s son Sebastian.
The text comes from Johann Amadeus Wendt’s Taschenbuch zum geselligen Vergnügen auf
das Jahr 1819 (Pocketbook for Companionable Pleasures for the Year 1819), where it was
entitled ‘Die Bäuerin’/The Peasant Woman; a young woman cannot quite fully confess to
her mother the strange feelings – easily decoded as hints of first love – she has
harboured since the last year’s fair.
Sanft weh’n im Hauch der Abendluft is a setting of a characteristic poem by Friedrich
von Matthisson, whose single volume of poems – first published in 1787 and reprinted
many times thereafter – was praised by Schiller for its melancholy sweetness and tender
descriptions of Nature. At the beginning, Matthisson invokes grasses gently waving in
the soft springtime breeze and only then reveals that Nature thus caresses the grave of
a child. Near the end of Felix’s setting, we hear the influence of Baroque music (passed
from Johann Friedrich Fasch to Carl Friedrich Zelter to Felix) when the grief-stricken
parents sing of wandering without surcease through the world’s chaos. The vocal line is
like a chorale cantus firmus beneath which the piano sinks by degrees to a hymn-like
ending. We can also hear the enduring impress of 18th-century music on the
Weihnachtslied, which begins and ends with a Bach-like tolling pitch in the bass and
sounds different permutations of the opening melodic figure throughout different levels
of the texture.
ANTIQUE STRAINS AND VOICES FROM YESTERYEAR
Felix’s Erntelied is a darkly beautiful strophic song – chorale, folksong, and antique
church modes are all mimicked here – about Death the inexorable reaper who mows
down all the lovely flowers/people. At the end, dread becomes joy, with defiantly full
harmonization replacing the stark unison texture of earlier passages, but the darkness
of Mendelssohn’s music at the end tells us that the fear of death is not so easily
overcome.
The great 17th-century physician–poet Paul Fleming was famed both for secular love
poetry and religious verse, with Pilgerspruch among the latter. In this cross between a
hymn and an art-song, Mendelssohn repeats and extends the final line of each stanza
in order to drive home the poet’s message: do not succumb to sorrow; stand fast, and
know that God’s will is best.
Four centuries before Fleming, the medieval Minnesinger (singer of courtly love) Jakob
von Wart, who appears in the Manesse Codex – a compendium of Minnesong – sang of
the contrast between springtime beauty and a lovelorn persona distant from his
sweetheart (an antique poetic theme) in Maienlied. Another Minnesinger, Heinrich der
tugendhafte Schreiber (Henry the Virtuous Scribe), who also appears in the Manesse
Codex, provided Mendelssohn with the text of his Altdeutsches Lied, a mostly gentle
lament, albeit with brief admixtures of passionate protest, by a persona who compares
BIOGRAPHIES
the futility of his complaints to his beloved with nightingales whose forest songs are
not heard.
6 DUETS OP.63
Felix in 1836 had fallen in love with Cécile Jeanrenaud, whom he would marry the
following year; the tremulous love duet Ich wollt’ meine Lieb’ ergösse sich comes from
this period in his life. Eight years later in 1844, when the Op.63 set was published, he
added the newly composed Abschiedslied der Zugvögel (No.2) whose melancholy
migratory birds are emblems of the homeless and sorrowful spirit; the tender and yet
animated vow of eternal love in Gruss (No.3); and the playful Maiglöckchen und die
Blümelein (No.6) in Mendelssohn’s scherzo manner. Herbstlied (No.4) had begun as a
‘Duet without words’ in 1836, but then Mendelssohn’s friend Karl Klingemann applied his
autumnal poem to the piano work in 1844; the result was a duet whose themes mirror
those in the other duets (memories of a round dance, spring turning to winter and joy to
sorrow). German song composers made something of a cult of Robert Burns’s poetry, and
the Volkslied (‘O säh’ ich auf der Haide dort’/O wert thou in the cauld blast) signals its
Scottish origins via drone bass patterns.
Susan Youens
photo: Christina Haldane
The ‘hunt or chase of love’ is the subject of a famous folk poem from a famous
anthology: Jagdlied (‘Mit Lust tät ich ausreiten’) from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The
Youth’s Magic Horn of 1805–1808, edited by Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim).
Mendelssohn fills the piano accompaniment to this song with traditional hunting horn
calls that echo and re-echo through the musical forest. A statesman and a poet, Ulrich
von Lichtenstein, famous for his Frauendienst (In the Service of Women), compares the
blossoming forth of spring in yet another Frühlingslied to the blossoming of his spirit
when he thinks of his lady’s goodness. In contrast, the persona of Andres Mailied warns
someone – himself? – of a pretty girl’s probable treachery to Mendelssohn’s humorous
music (note the brief drum-rolls in the piano to underscore the repeated warnings, ‘Don’t
trust her: she’ll make a fool of you!’).
MARY BEVAN soprano
Mary Bevan trained at the Royal Academy Opera, and read Anglo-Saxon Norse and Celtic
at Trinity College, Cambridge. She received various awards and prizes at the RAM, and
was a member of the Royal Academy Song Circle, and the soprano soloist
for the Kohn Foundation Bach Cantata Series. She is currently a
Harewood Artist at the English National Opera.
Her recent operatic highlights include Barbarina The Marriage of Figaro
and Rebecca in the world premiere of Two Boys by Nico Muhly at the
ENO, Pamina The Magic Flute for Garsington Opera at West Green House,
and Zerlina for Garsington. Other operatic engagements include Barbarina
The Marriage of Figaro at Garsington Opera, Despina Così fan tutte for
Vignette Productions and Papagena The Magic Flute for British Youth Opera. Mary is
currently an Associate Artist of the Classical Opera, with whom she has recently sung
Tamiri Il re pastore, Thomas Arne’s Alfred and Handel’s Apollo e Daphne. At the RAM she
sang Iris Semele under Sir Charles Mackerras, Despina and Emmie Albert Herring.
In demand on the concert platform, Mary Bevan recently made her debuts at the
Edinburgh International Festival in Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the
Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Sir Roger Norrington, and at the BBC Proms as Kate in
Gilbert & Sullivan’s Yeomen of the Guard with the BBC Concert Orchestra under Jane
Glover. She has also sung Deceit The Triumph of Time and Truth with Ludus Baroque, and
recorded Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No.3 and Schubert Rosamunde with the BBC
Philharmonic Orchestra under Paul Daniel. A dedicated recitalist, Bevan recently sang
Zekfa in Janáček’s Diary of One who Disappeared at Grimeborn Festival, a solo and also a
joint recital with Sophie Bevan at the Oxford Lieder Festival, and at the Wigmore Hall
with the Royal Academy Song Circle.
Her discography includes Fen and Flood by Patrick Hadley with the Bournemouth
Symphony Orchestra under Paul Daniel for the Vaughan Williams Society and Handel in
the Playhouse, a selection of Handel duets and songs with L’Avventura London for Opella
Nova Records. She has also recorded Handel Ode on St Cecilia’s Day with Ludus Baroque.
Her operatic roles for English National Opera include Xenia Boris
Godunov, Despina Così fan tutte, soprano solos Messiah, Polissena
Radamisto, Yum Yum Mikado, Telair in Rameau’s Castor and Pollux and her first Sophie
Der Rosenkavalier. For Garsington Opera she has performed Pamina, Donna Elvira and her
first Susanna and for Welsh National Opera she has sung the title role in The Cunning
Little Vixen. For the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden she has appeared as Waldvogel
Siegfried and Pamina.
BENJAMIN APPL baritone
Photo: Garreth Wong
ROBIN TRITSCHLER tenor
Robin’s concert performances include appearances with the London
Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski; the Orchestra of the
An accomplished lieder performer, Robin has given numerous song recitals and has
performed many of the great cycles of the repertoire with leading accompanists
Graham Johnson, Malcolm Martineau, Julius Drake and Simon Lepper. Robin has
appeared at venues such as Wigmore Hall, Köln Philharmonie, Het Concertgebouw and
the Kennedy Centre (Washington DC), and regularly performs at the Aldeburgh
Festival, Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, and the West Cork
Chamber Music Festival.
Robin joined Welsh National Opera as a principal artist for the 2008/2009 season,
singing Count Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), Narraboth
(Salomé) and Marzio (Mitridate).
Sophie was the recipient of the 2010 Critics’ Circle award for Exceptional Young Talent.
She was nominated for the 2012 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards and was the
recipient of The Times Breakthrough Award at the 2012 South Bank Sky Arts Awards.
Robin Tritschler graduated from the Royal Irish Academy of Music and
the Royal Academy of Music, London. A versatile artist, he is equally at
home performing operas, concerts and song recitals. He has been
awarded a number of prizes including the song prizes at the Kathleen
Ferrier Awards and the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition.
Robin was recently selected by the BBC as a New Generation Artist for
2012-14, which incorporates a ranging of performances and recordings.
Age of Enlightenment; the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra under Edo de Waart; the
Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra; Orquesta Nacional de España; the Scottish Chamber
Orchestra; and the Britten Sinfonia. With the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Robin performed
the Messiah before Pope Benedict XVI to celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the
Vatican State.
German baritone Benjamin Appl is an artist equally at home in opera,
concert and recital repertoire. He studied at the Hochschule für Musik
und Theater Munich and the Bayerische Theaterakademie August
Everding, Munich, where he was in the voice studio of Edith Wiens and
the song class of Helmut Deutsch. He has worked with Graham Johnson,
Gerald Finley, Brigitte Fassbaender, and Christian Gerhaher. In the
autumn of 2010, he moved to London to study with Rudolf Piernay at
the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Benjamin Appl had the great
distinction of being the last private pupil of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
Recent appearances on the opera stage include Ernesto in Haydn’s Il mondo della luna
in Augsburg, Minister in Strauß’s Wiener Blut in Munich, Dr. Falke in Strauß’s
Photo: David Jerusalem
Conductors she works with include Sir Antonio Pappano, Daniel
Harding, Harry Christophers, Edward Gardner, Laurence Cummings,
Sir Mark Elder, Sir Neville Marriner and Sir Charles Mackerras.
photo: Sussie Ahlburg
SOPHIE BEVAN soprano
Sophie Bevan graduated from the Benjamin Britten International
Opera School where she was awarded the Queen Mother Rose
Bowl Award.
In concert, Benjamin has been a featured soloist with the Akademie für Alte Musik
Berlin, the International Bach Festival Halle, the Tage Alter Musik Regensburg and the
Bach Collegium Zurich. His oratorio appearances include Bach’s St John Passion and
Christmas Oratorio, Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum, Haydn’s The Creation and Orff’s
Carmina Burana. During the 2006 visit of Pope Benedikt XVI to Germany he was the
soloist of songs and psalms, which was broadcast live around the world. In April 2010
he sang Messiah at the St. Madeleine, Paris.
In recital he made his debut at the 2010 Ravinia Festival, Chicago and has since
appeared in recital at the Rheingau Festival, in Bordeaux and Berlin. With Graham
Johnson he has appeared in the ‘Young Songmakers Almanac’ in London, at the
Festival ‘Heidelberger Frühling’, at Antwerp De Singel, the Oxford Lieder Festival, at
the Klavier-Festival Ruhr and took part in the BBC Radio 3 Schubert Week.
Benjamin Appl is a member of Yehudi Menuhin Foundation Live Music Now and is a
recipient of the prestigious German National Academic Foundation award. He was also
awarded a scholarship in 2003 by the Wagner Society. He is the recipient of the 2012
Schubert Prize awarded by the Deutsches Schubert Gesellschaft, Duisburg.
JONATHAN MCGOVERN baritone
A graduate of King’s College London and the Royal Academy of Music (DipRAM),
Jonathan McGovern is winner of the 2nd Prize at the 2011 Kathleen Ferrier Awards,
the Gold Medal and 1st Prize at the Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition
in 2010, the Karaviotis Prize at the 2011 Les Azuriales Competition and the Jean
photo: Benjamin Ealovega
Fledermaus in Regensburg, Schaunard in Puccini’s La Bohème in Munich with the
Munich Radio Orchestra under Ulf Schirmer, Carl Orff’s Die Kluge with the Munich Radio
Orchestra and Baron Tusenbach in Eötvös’s Tri Sestri in the Prinzregenten Theater,
Munich and for the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin.
Meikle Duo Prize at the 2011 Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation
International Song Competition. Jonathan is a former Britten-Pears
Young Artist and an Associate Artist with Classical Opera.
A regular guest at ENO, his roles to date have included Jake in the
world premiere of Two Boys by Nico Muhly, Yamadori Madama
Butterfly, Simon Vines in Michel van der Aa’s world premiere The
Sunken Garden and Papageno Die Zauberflöte (cover). Other
operatic appearances include Sid Albert Herring for Aldeburgh
Festival, conducted by Steuart Bedford, and Figaro Il Barbiere di
Siviglia for the 2013 Verbier Festival Academy.
In recital, Jonathan has worked with pianists Malcolm Martineau, Julius Drake, Simon
Lepper, James Baillieu and James Cheung. He is a member of the Royal Academy of
Music Song Circle and was a member of the French Song Residency at the 2012 Aix-enProvence Festival Academie. Elsewhere, he has appeared at Opéra de Lille, Wigmore Hall,
King’s Place, the Edinburgh, Brighton Festival, Machynlleth and London Song Festivals.
Recordings include songs by Claude Debussy (Hyperion) with Malcolm Martineau, and
Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Le Reniement de Saint Pierre (Jesus) with David Bates and La
Nuova Musica (HM USA).
Concert work includes the title role in Telemann’s Orpheus at the London Handel
Festival, Bach’s St John Passion at Winchester Cathedral, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy
with the Verbier Festival Orchestra under Charles Dutoit at the 2013 Verbier Festival, The
Yeoman of the Guard with Jane Glover and the BBC Philharmonic at the 2011 BBC
PROMS, Boatswain in HMS Pinafore at London’s Barbican and around the UK, Bernstein’s
Candide with the Cambridge Philharmonic and Fauré’s Requiem at Southwark Cathedral.
Recent concert appearances include Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the New York
Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert, Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ with the Britten Sinfonia and
Sir Mark Elder; Verdi’s Otello (Cassio) with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin
Davis and Il Tabarro in concert at the BBC Proms with the BBC Philharmonic and
Gianandrea Noseda.
Allan has given lieder recitals at the Cheltenham Festival, the Perth International Arts
Festival in Australia, the Aldeburgh Festival, and London’s Wigmore Hall. He has been
fortunate to work with many outstanding pianists including Paul Lewis, Graham
His recordings include a Gramophone-nominated Otello for LSO Live, a CD and DVD of
Handel’s Messiah for EMI (which was also broadcast live to cinemas worldwide), a DVD
of Dove’s The Adventures of Pinocchio, Britten’s Michelangelo Sonnets with Malcolm
Martineau, and Joshua (London Handel Society/Laurence Cummings). For Hyperion he
has recorded Lukaszewski’s Via Crucis, Messiah with the Britten Sinfonia, and Britten’s
St Nicolas.
MALCOLM MARTINEAU piano
Malcolm Martineau was born in Edinburgh, read Music at St
Catharine’s College, Cambridge and studied at the Royal
College of Music.
Photo: Russell Duncan
On stage, Allan’s other roles have included Ferrando/Così fan tutte at the New York City
Opera, Royal Opera House, Opera North, and the Glyndebourne Festival;
Bénédict/Béatrice et Bénédict for Opéra Comique, Paris; Castor/Castor et Pollux and
Lysander/A Midsummer Night’s Dream for English National Opera; Belmonte/Die
Entführung aus dem Serail, Lampwick in the world premiere of Jonathan Dove’s The
Adventures of Pinocchio, and Camille/The Merry Widow for Opera North; the title role in
Albert Herring for the Glyndebourne Festival and Opéra Comique, Paris.
Johnson, Malcolm Martineau, Roger Vignoles, Julius Drake, James Baillieu, Simon
Lepper and Joseph Middleton, on repertoire such as Schubert’s Winterreise and Die
Schöne Müllerin, Vaughan Williams’ On Wenlock Edge and the songs of Strauss, Wolf,
Britten, Duparc and Tippett amongst others.
Photo: Pietro Spagnoli
ALLAN CLAYTON tenor
Allan Clayton has quickly established himself as one of the most
exciting and sought-after singers of his generation. A
consummate actor and deeply sensitive musician he has already
made a huge impact on the international operatic and concert
scene. Highlights include George Benjamin’s opera Written on
Skin at the Netherlands Opera, the Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse,
the Royal Opera House, Wiener Festwochen, and the Bayerische
Staatsoper, following on from the world premiere of the work at
the 2012 Festival de Aix-en-Provence. Concerts include Act 3 of
Wagner’s Die Meistersinger (David) with Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé, Britten’s Spring
Symphony with both the Philharmonia and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
under Ed Gardner.
Recognised as one of the leading accompanists of his
generation, he has worked with many of the world’s greatest
singers including Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Janet Baker, Olaf
Bär, Barbara Bonney, Ian Bostridge, Angela Gheorghiu, Susan
Graham, Thomas Hampson, Della Jones, Simon Keenlyside,
Angelika Kirchschlager, Magdalena Kozena, Solveig
Kringelborn, Jonathan Lemalu, Dame Felicity Lott, Christopher
Maltman, Karita Mattila, Lisa Milne, Ann Murray, Anna Netrebko, Anne Sofie von Otter,
Joan Rodgers, Amanda Roocroft, Michael Schade, Frederica von Stade, Sarah Walker and
Bryn Terfel.
He has presented his own series at the Wigmore Hall (a Britten and a Poulenc series
and Decade by Decade – 100 years of German Song broadcast by the BBC) and at the
SONG TEXTS
Edinburgh Festival (the complete lieder of Hugo Wolf). He has appeared throughout
Europe (including London’s Wigmore Hall, Barbican, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Royal
Opera House; La Scala, Milan; the Châtelet, Paris; the Liceu, Barcelona; Berlin’s
Philharmonie and Konzerthaus; Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and the Vienna Konzerthaus
and Musikverein), North America (including in New York both Alice Tully Hall and
Carnegie Hall), Australia (including the Sydney Opera House) and at the Aix-enProvence, Vienna, Edinburgh, Schubertiade, Munich and Salzburg festivals.
Recording projects have included Schubert, Schumann and English song recitals with
Bryn Terfel (for Deutsche Grammophon); Schubert and Strauss recitals with Simon
Keenlyside (for EMI); recital recordings with Angela Gheorghiu and Barbara Bonney (for
Decca), Magdalena Kozena (for DG), Della Jones (for Chandos), Susan Bullock (for Crear
Classics), Solveig Kringelborn (for NMA); Amanda Roocroft (for Onyx); the complete
Fauré songs with Sarah Walker and Tom Krause; the complete Britten Folk Songs for
Hyperion; the complete Beethoven Folk Songs for Deutsche Grammophon; the complete
Poulenc songs for Signum; and Britten Song Cycles as well as Schubert’s Winterreise with
Florian Boesch for Onyx.
He was a given an honorary doctorate at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and
Drama in 2004, and appointed International Fellow of Accompaniment in 2009. Malcolm
was the Artistic Director of the 2011 Leeds Lieder+ Festival.
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Scheidend (Johann Gustav Droysen)
Wie so gelinde die Flut bewegt!
Wie sie so ruhig den Nachen trägt!
Fern liegt das Leben, das Jugendland!
Fern, fern liegt der Schmerz,
Sanft tragt mich, Fluten, zum fernen Land!
Separation
How gently the tide flows!
How tranquilly it bears the boat!
Far away life and the land of my youth!
Far away the pain, which bound me there.
Bear me gently away, O tide, to the far-off land!
Droben der Sterne stiller Ort,
Unten der Strom fließt fort und fort.
Wohl warst du reich, mein Jugendland!
Wohl, wohl war es süß,
Sanft tragt mich, Fluten, zum fernen Land!
The stars dwell silently above me,
Below me the current flows on and on,
You were indeed rich, land of my youth!
That which bound me there was sweet indeed,
Bear me gently away, O tide, to the far-off land!
Reiselied (Karl Egon Ebert)
Bringet des treu’sten Herzens Grüße,
Eilende Wellen, zu ihr hin.
Sagt, wie ich jedes Glück vermisse,
Seit ich von ihr geschieden bin.
Travelling song
Bear greetings of my most loyal heart,
O rushing waves, to my love.
Tell her how unhappy I have been,
Since she and I have been apart.
Hier empfind’ ich alle Schmerzen,
Dort vergaß ich jedes Leid,
Aug’ in Auge, Herz an Herzen,
Ach, es war wohl schöne Zeit!
Here I feel naught but pain,
There I forgot every sorrow,
Gazing at each other, hearts entwined,
Ah! those were happy times!
Sieh’, der Wind zieht ihr entgegen,
Ihr entgegen eilt der Bach,
Alles will zu ihr sich bewegen,
Wolken und Blätter zieh’n ihr nach.
See how the wind blows towards her,
Towards her too the brooklet flows,
Everything moves in her direction,
Clouds and leaves are drawn to her.
Ich allein muß vorwärts ziehen,
Ich darf wenden nicht den Blick,
Aber alle Sinne fliehen
Mit den Wolken dort zurück!
I alone must continue on my way,
I cannot glance behind me,
But all my thoughts fly
Back to her with the clouds!
Und so rufen neue Stellen
Nur die alten mir empor,
Und es blickt aus Wald und Wellen
Nur ihr liebes Bild hervor;
And so new places only conjure
Up for me the old ones,
And only her beloved face
Gazes from woodland and sea;
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4
Alles mahnt nur an die süße,
Die entschwund'ne Fröhlichkeit.
Bringt dem treuen Herzen Grüße,
Ach, es war wohl schöne Zeit!
Everything reminds me of my sweet,
Reminds me of vanished happiness.
Bear greetings to that loyal heart,
Ah! those were happy times!
Morgengruß (Heinrich Heine)
Über die Berge steigt schon die Sonne,
Die Lämmerherde läutet von fern;
Mein Liebchen, mein Lamm,
meine Sonne und Wonne,
Noch einmal säh’ ich dich gar zu gern!
Morning greeting
The sun is rising over the mountains,
The flock of sheep can be heard from afar;
My dearest, my lamb, my sun
and my joy,
How I should love to see you again!
Ich schaue hinauf mit spähender Miene,
“Leb’ wohl, mein Kind, ich wandre von hier!”
Vergebens! Es regt sich keine Gardine;
Sie liegt noch und schläft – und träumt von mir.
I raise my eyes expectantly,
“Farewell, my child, I’m going away!”
In vain! The curtain does not stir;
She’s still asleep – and dreaming of me.
An die Entfernte (Nikolaus Lenau)
Diese Rose pflück’ ich hier
In der weiten Ferne,
Liebes Mädchen, dir, ach dir,
Brächt ich sie so gerne!
To the distant beloved
I pluck this rose here
Far away from you;
Dear girl, how I should love
To bring it you!
Doch bis ich zu dir mag zieh’n
Viele weite Meilen,
Ist die Rose längst dahin;
Denn die Rosen eilen.
Yet long before I could arrive,
So many, many miles away,
The rose would have withered,
For roses hurry through life.
Nie soll weiter sich ins Land
Lieb’ von Liebe wagen,
Als sich blühend in der Hand
Läßt die Rose tragen;
Lovers should never venture
Further apart
Than a hand can carry
A blossoming rose;
Oder als die Nachtigall
Halme bringt zum Neste,
Oder als ihr süßer Schall
Wandert mit dem Weste.
Or further than the nightingale
Fetches straw for the nest,
Or further than her sweet song
Can be borne on the West wind.
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6
Das Heimweh (Friederike Robert)
Was ist’s, das mir den Atem hemmet,
Und selbst den Seufzer unterdrückt?
Das stets in jeden Weg sich stemmet,
Und Sinn und Geist mir so verrückt?
Es ist das Heimweh! O Schmerzenslaut!
O Schmerzenslaut, wie klingst im Innern
mir vertraut.
Homesickness
What is it that checks my breath,
And even stifles sighs?
That always blocks every path,
And drives me to distraction?
It is homesickness! O sound of pain!
O sound of pain, how well my heart
knows you.
Was ist’s, das mir den Willen raubet,
Zu jeder Tat mich mutlos macht?
Das mir die Flur, so grün belaubet,
Verwandelt in Gefängnisnacht?
Es ist das Heimweh! O Jammerton!
O Jammerton, wie lange tönst im
Herzen schon!
What is it that robs me of my free will,
And renders me powerless to act?
That transforms the leafy meadow
Into a night-filled prison?
It is homesickness! O sound of misery!
O sound of misery, how long have you sounded
in my heart!
Was ist’s, das mich erstarrt und brennet,
Und jede Freud’ und Lust vergällt?
Gibt es kein Wort, das dieses nennet,
Gibt es kein Wort in dieser Welt?
Es ist das Heimweh! O herbes Weh!
O herbes Weh! Die Heimat, ach! ich
nimmer seh!
What is it that makes me freeze and burn,
And poisons every joy and pleasure?
Is there no word for this,
Is there no word in this world?
It is homesickness! O bitter woe!
O bitter woe! I shall never see my
homeland again!
Wanderlied (Joseph von Eichendorff)
Laue Luft kommt blau geflossen,
Frühling, Frühling soll es sein!
Waldwärts Hörnerklang geschossen,
Mut’ger Augen lichter Schein;
Und das Wirren, bunt und bunter,
Wird ein magisch wilder Fluss,
In die schöne Welt hinunter
Lockt dich dieses Stromes Gruss.
Traveller’s song
Warm air comes in a rush of blue,
Spring, it must be spring!
The sound of horns echoes in the woods,
Bold eyes shine brightly;
And the profusion, ever brighter,
Becomes a magical wild river
Whose cascading welcome
Entices you into the beautiful world.
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9
Und ich mag mich nicht bewahren!
Weit von euch treibt mich der Wind,
Auf dem Strome will ich fahren,
Von dem Glanze selig blind!
Tausend Stimmen lockend schlagen,
Hoch Aurora flammend weht;
Fahre zu! Ich mag nicht fragen,
Wo die Fahrt zu Ende geht!
And I do not wish to spare myself!
The wind drives me far from you,
I wish to travel on the river,
Blissfully blinded by the glare!
A thousand voices entice me,
Aurora drifts, flaming high;
Journey on! I shall not ask
Where the journey will end!
Frühlingslied (Friederike Robert)
Jetzt kommt der Frühling, der Himmel isch blau,
Die Wegle sin trucken, die Lüfte gehn lau.
Songs of Spring
The spring is coming, the sky is blue,
The paths are dry, the breezes warm.
Jetzt kommt der Frühling, die Vögle im Wald
Zwitschern und locka ihre Weible wol bald!
The spring is coming, the birds in the wood
Twitter and will soon entice their wives!
Jetzt kommt der Frühling, die Bähm schlage aus.
Un i bring mei Schätzle ein Veigelestrauss!
The spring is coming, the trees start to bud.
And I bring my sweetheart a bunch of violets!
Das erste Veilchen (Karl Egon Ebert)
Als ich das erste Veilchen erblickt’,
Wie war ich von Farben und Duft entzückt!
Die Botin des Lenzes drückt’ ich voll Lust
An meine schwellende, hoffende Brust.
The first violet
When I glimpsed the first violet,
How its colours and scent bewitched me!
Joyfully I pressed this spring messenger
To my throbbing, hopeful breast.
Der Lenz ist vorüber, das Veilchen ist tot;
Rings steh’n viel Blumen, blau und rot,
Ich stehe inmitten, und sehe sie kaum,
Das Veilchen erscheint mir im Frühlingstraum.
Spring is over, the violet is dead;
Surrounded by many blue and red flowers,
I stand in their midst and hardly see them,
The violet appears to me in a spring dream.
Im Frühling (Johann Gustav Droysen)
Ihr frühlingstrunknen Blumen,
Ihr Bäume, monddurchblinket!
Ihr könnt’s nicht sagen und seid stumm,
Wie süss ihr schwelgt und trinket!
In spring
You flowers drunk with spring,
You moonlit trees!
You cannot speak and are mute,
How sweetly you revel and drink!
Ich trink und schwelge mit euch
Und sing’s in heller Frühlingslust.
I drink and revel with you
And sing out in spring’s bright joy.
10
O, wie mir Aug und Wange glüht!
Wie hebt und sehnt sich meine Brust!
Ah, how my eyes and cheeks burn!
How my breast heaves and yearns!
Du sehnsuchtleuchtend Mondlicht,
Ihr friedlich hellen Sterne
Blickt zu den Blumen still herab.
Euch bleibt der Frühling ferne.
O moonlight aglow with longing,
O peaceful bright stars –
Gaze down silently on the flowers.
Spring lies far away from you.
Mir blüht und glüht die Rose
Und mir die frische Frühlingspracht!
All meine Träume sind erfüllt,
Nun ist dem Herzen Ruh gebracht.
The rose blooms and glows for me,
And spring’s fresh splendour!
All my dreams are fulfilled,
Peace has now come to my heart.
Frühlingslied (Karl Klingemann)
Es brechen im schallenden Reigen
Die Frühlingsstimmen los,
Sie können’s nicht länger verschweigen,
Die Wonne ist gar zu groß!
Wohin, sie ahnen es selber kaum,
Es rührt sie ein alter, ein süßer Traum!
Spring song
In resounding roundelays
The voices of spring are breaking out,
They can no longer be silent,
Their joy is far too great!
Whither, they scarcely know themselves,
They’re touched by an old, sweet dream!
Die Knospen schwellen und glühen
Und drängen sich an das Licht,
Und warten in sehnendem Blühen,
Daß liebende Hand sie bricht.
Wohin, sie ahnen es selber kaum,
Es rührt sie ein alter, ein süßer Traum!
The buds are swelling and glowing
And pressing towards the light,
Waiting in burgeoning desire
To be picked by a loving hand.
Whither, they scarcely know themselves,
They’re touched by an old, sweet dream!
Und Frühlingsgeister, sie steigen
Hinab in der Menschen Brust,
Und regen da drinnen den Reigen
Der ew’gen Jugendlust.
Wohin, wir ahnen es selber kaum,
Es rührt uns ein alter, ein süßer Traum!
And spirits of spring are descending
Into the breasts of men,
And stir within it the roundelay
Of youth’s eternal joy.
Whither, we scarcely know ourselves,
We’re touched by an old, sweet dream!
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12
Frühlingslied (Nikolaus Lenau)
Durch den Wald, den dunkeln, geht
Holde Frühlingsmorgenstunde,
Durch den Wald vom Himmel weht
Eine leise Liebeskunde.
Spring song
Spring’s glorious morning hour
Passes through the dark wood,
A gentle message of love
Blows from heaven through the wood.
Selig lauscht der grüne Baum,
Und er taucht mit allen Zweigen
In den schönen Frühlingstraum,
In den vollen Lebensreigen.
The green tree listens in rapture,
And dips all its boughs
Into the beautiful spring dream,
Into the full dance of life.
Blüht ein Blümchen irgendwo,
Wird’s vom hellen Tau getränket,
Das Versteckte zittert froh,
Daß der Himmel sein gedenket.
Wherever a small flower blooms,
It is watered by the bright dew,
The hidden flower quivers with joy,
That heaven has remembered her.
In geheimer Laubesnacht
Wird des Vogels Herz getroffen
Von der Liebe Zaubermacht,
Und er singt ein süßes Hoffen.
In the secret darkness of the leaves
The bird’s heart is struck,
By the magic power of love,
And he sings of his sweet hope.
All' das frohe Lenzgeschick
Nicht ein Wort des Himmels kündet,
Nur sein stummer, warmer Blick
Hat die Seligkeit entzündet;
All these joyful spring messages,
Speak not a single word of heaven,
Only his silent and ardent glance,
Has kindled happiness.
Also in den Winterharm,
Der die Seele hielt bezwungen,
Ist dein Blick mir, still und warm,
Frühlingsmächtig eingedrungen.
Thus in this grim winter,
Which kept my soul subdued,
Your quiet and ardent glance
Has pierced me with the power of spring.
Lied zum Geburtstage meines
Song to celebrate the birthday of my
guten Vaters
good father
Ihr Töne, schwingt euch fröhlich durch die Saiten, Let these strings sound out happily,
Erklinget heller, heller heut’.
Ring out more brightly today –
Ihr sollt ein frohes Jubellied bedeuten,
A happy song of jubilation,
Das fromme Kindesliebe beut.
Demanded by devoted, filial love.
13
Drum leucht’ auch ferner noch dem teu’ren Leben
Ein freundlich heller, heller Stern.
Lang möge ihn sein Genius umgeben,
Und alles Unheil bleibe fern.
May a friendly bright star, therefore,
Continue to shine on his cherished life.
May his genius long surround him,
And may all calamity stay away.
Ihr Töne, aber, schwingt euch durch die Saiten,
Erklinget lauter, lauter heut’,
Ihr möget ihm ein Jubellied bedeuten,
Das seiner Kinder Liebe beut.
Let these strings sound out happily,
Ring out more brightly today –
A happy song of jubilation,
Demanded by his children’s love.
Seltsam, Mutter, geht es mir
(Johann Ludwig Casper)
I feel stranger, Mother
Seltsam, Mutter, geht es mir,
Wie mir’s nie gegangen;
Ach, ich fühle für und für
Heftiges Verlangen.
Heut ist’s just ein halbes Jahr
Dass die letzte Kirmes war,
Nun ja, und da ...
I feel stranger, Mother,
Than I’ve ever felt before;
Ah! I feel a constant,
Violent yearning.
Six months have passed
Since the parish fair,
And it was there that I –
Nein, beschreiben kann ich nicht,
Mutter, dir die Plage,
Die ein schönes Traumgesicht
Schafft bei Nacht und Tage.
Flieh ich her und flieh ich hin,
Immer haftet’s in dem Sinn
Und hier, mit mir ...
No, I can’t describe to you,
Mother, the torment
That a lovely vision
Causes me by night and day.
No matter which way I turn,
It always remains with me
Here in my mind, and –
Immer, immer schwimmt das Bild
Deutlich mir hernieder;
Ach, und scheint so sanft und mild,
Scheint so treu und bieder.
Liebe Mutter, ging es dir
Dann auch früherhin wie mir,
Du blinkst, und nickst?
The picture floats down to me
Incessantly and clearly;
Ah! and it seems so soft and gentle,
Seems so upright and true.
Dear Mother, did you once feel
Like I do now –
You stare at me, and nod?
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15
Sanft weh’n im Hauch der Abendluft
(Friedrich von Matthisson)
In the gentle evening breeze
Sanft weh’n, im Hauch der Abendluft,
Die Frühlingshalm’ auf deiner Gruft,
Wo Sehnsuchtstränen fallen.
Nie soll, bis uns der Tod befreit,
Die Wolke der Vergessenheit
Dein holdes Bild umwallen!
In the evening breeze, on your tomb
Blades of spring grass gently wave,
Where tears of longing fall.
Not until death frees us
Shall the cloud of oblivion
Hover round your lovely image!
Wohl dir, obgleich entknospet kaum,
Von Erdenlust und Sinnentraum,
Von Schmerz und Wahn geschieden!
Du schläfst in Ruh’; wir wanken irr’
Und unstetbang im Weltgewirr’,
Und haben selten Frieden.
How fortunate you are, though barely grown,
To have left earthly joy and reverie,
Pain and delusion behind!
You sleep in peace, we reel and waver
Restless and fearful in this chaotic world,
And rarely experience peace.
Weihnachtslied (Christian Fürchtegott Gellert)
Auf, schicke dich,
Recht feierlich
Des Heilands Fest mit Danken zu begehen.
Lieb’ ist der Dank,
Der Lobgesang,
Durch den wir ihn, den Gott der Lieb’, erhöhen.
Christmas carol
Arise,
Prepare with true solemnity
To celebrate with thanks the Saviour’s festival.
Love is the thanks,
The song of praise,
Through which we exalt him, the God of Love.
Sprich dankbar froh:
Gott hat also
Die Welt in seinem Sohn geliebet!
O, wer bin ich,
Herr, daß du mich
So herrlich hoch in deinem
Sohn geliebet?
Utter with joy your gratitude:
God, in this fashion,
Has loved the world in His Son!
O who am I,
Lord, that you
Have loved me with such splendour
and exaltation!
16
Erntelied (from Des Knaben Wunderhorn)
Es ist ein Schnitter, der heißt Tod,
Hat Gewalt vom höchsten Gott,
Heut wetzt er das Messer,
Es schneid’t viel besser;
Bald wird er drein schneiden,
Wir müssen nur leiden.
Harvest song
There is a reaper, whose name is Death,
His power comes from God on high,
Today he whets his knife,
It now cuts much better;
Soon he’ll start reaping –
We shall have to suffer.
Hüte dich, schöns Blümelein!
Hüte dich!
Beware, beautiful little flower!
Beware!
Was heut noch grün und frisch da steht,
Wird schon morgen hinweggemäht:
Die edlen Narzissen,
Die Zierden der Wiesen,
Viel schön Hyazinthen,
Die türkischen Binden.
All that grows fresh and green today,
Will tomorrow be mown away:
The noble narcissi,
That beautify the meadows,
'The beautiful Hyacinths,
The turkish flowers.
Hüte dich, schöns Blümelein!
Hüte dich!
Beware, beautiful little flower!
Beware!
Ihr hübsch Lavendel, Rosmarin,
Ihr vielfarbge Röselin,
Ihr stolze Schwertlilien,
Ihr krause Basilien, ihr zarte Violen,
Man wird euch bald holen.
O pretty lavender, rosemary,
O many-coloured little roses,
O proud irises,
O wrinkled basil, o tender violets,
Soon he shall come for you all.
Hüte dich, schöns Blümelein!
Hüte dich!
Beware, beautiful little flower!
Beware!
Trotz! Tod, komm her,
Ich fürcht dich nit.
Trotz! eil daher in einem Schritt!
Werd ich nur verletzet,
So werd ich versetzet
In den himmlischen Garten,
Auf den alle wir warten.
Defiance! Death, come hither,
I do not fear you.
Defiance! Hasten to me in one fell swoop!
If I am wounded,
I shall be transported
Into the garden of Heaven,
Which all of us await.
Freu dich, du schöns Blümelein!
Freu dich! Freu dich!
Rejoice, beautiful little flower!
Rejoice! Rejoice!
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Pilgerspruch (Paul Fleming)
Lass dich nur nichts nicht dauern,
Mit Trauern sei stille!
Wie Gott es fügt,
So sei vergnügt mein Wille.
Pilgrim’s prayer
Do not ever cease repenting,
Let your grieving perish!
As God ordains,
Thus shall my will be glad.
Was willst du viel dich sorgen
Auf morgen? Der Eine
Steht allem für,
Der gibt auch dir das Deine.
Why do you worry so
About the morrow? God
Looks after everyone,
He will give you what is yours.
Sei nur in allem Handel
Ohn Wandel, steh feste!
Was Gott beschleusst,
Das ist und heisst das Beste.
In all your deeds
Stand firm and resolute!
What God wills,
That is truly for the best.
Maienlied (Jacob von Warte)
Man soll hören süßes Singen
In den Auen überall,
Lieblich hell Gesang erklingen,
Voraus vor der Nachtigall!
Schauet auf den Anger breit,
Schauet an die lichte Heide,
Wie sie schön sich mit dem Kleide
Zu dem Maien hat bekleid’t.
May song
One should hear sweet singing
In the meadows everywhere,
Lovely bright song ringing out
Ahead of the nightingale!
Gaze upon the broad meadow,
Gaze upon the bright heath,
See how it has dressed itself
Ready for May.
Mancherhande Blümelein
Lachen aus des Maien Tau
In der lichten Sonne Schein;
Schöne Zeit zu werter Schau!
Was soll trösten mir den Mut?
Da mich zwinget Herzensschwere,
Bei der ich viel gerne wäre,
Dass die ferne leben tut.
Many kinds of little flowers
Laugh from the May’s dew
In the bright sun’s radiance;
This is the time for worthy display!
What can comfort me?
My heart is heavy –
For the woman I would so like to be with,
Lives far away.
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Altdeutsches Lied
(Heinrich der Tugendhafte Schreiber)
Es ist in den Wald gesungen,
Wenn ich der mein Leiden sage,
Die mein Herz mir hat bezwungen;
Sie hört nicht auf meine Klage.
Old German song
Mir ist wie der Nachtigall,
Die so viel vergeblich singet,
Und ihr doch am Ende bringet
Lauter Schmerz ihr süßer Schall.
I am like the nightingale
Who sings so much to no avail,
And whose sweet song in the end
Brings her nothing but pain.
Jagdlied (from Des Knaben Wunderhorn)
Mit Lust tät ich ausreiten
Durch einen grünen Wald,
Darin da hört’ ich singen
Drei Vöglein wohlgestalt.
Hunting song
With pleasure I ride
Through a green wood,
And there I hear three
Little birds sing pleasantly.
Und sind es nicht drei Vögelein,
So sind’s drei Fräulein fein,
Soll mir die Ein’ nicht werden,
So gilt’s das Leben mein.
And if there are not three little birds,
They must be three elegant ladies,
If one should not become mine,
My whole life will be forfeit.
Die Abendstrahlen breiten
Das Goldnetz übern Wald,
Und ihm entgegen streiten
Die Vöglein, dass es schallt.
The evening rays spread
A golden web above the wood,
And flying towards it,
The birds vie with one another noisily.
Ich stehe auf der Lauer,
Ich harr auf dunkle Nacht,
Es hat der Abendschauer
Ihr Herz wohl weich gemacht.
And there I stand listening,
Waiting for dark night,
The evening shower
Has softened her heart.
In’s Jubelhorn ich stosse,
Das Firmament wird klar,
Ich steige von dem Rosse
Und zähl die Vögelschar.
I wind my merry horn,
The firmament grows clear,
I dismount from my horse
And count the throng of birds.
It is like singing to the forest
If I tell my suffering to the woman
Who has conquered my heart;
She does not listen to my lament.
Die
Die
Die
Die
21
22
ein’ ist schwarzbraun Anne,
and’re Bärbelein,
dritt' hat keinen Namen,
soll des Jägers sein.
One is auburn Anne,
The other little Barbara,
The third has no name,
She shall be mine.
Frühlingslied (Ulrich von Lichtenstein)
In dem Walde süsse Töne
Singen kleine Vögelein,
Auf der Aue Blumen schöne
Blühen gen des Maien Schein.
Spring song
The little birds in the wood
Sing sweet songs,
Beautiful flowers in the meadow
Bloom towards gleaming May.
Also blüht mein hoher Mut
Im Gedanken ihrer Güte,
Die mir reich macht mein Gemüte,
Wie der Traum dem Armen tut.
Thus do my noble feelings bloom
When I think of her goodness,
She who enriches my soul,
Just as dreams enrich the pauper.
Hüt du dich
(from Des Knaben Wunderhorn)
Take care
Ich weiß ein Mädchen hübsch und fein,
Hüt du dich!
Die kann wohl lieb und freundlich sein,
Hüt du dich! Hüt du dich!
Vertrau ihr nicht, sie narret dich.
I know a maiden pretty and fine,
Take care!
She may be lovely and friendly,
Take care! Take care!
Trust her not, she’s fooling you.
Sie hat zwei Äuglein, die sind braun,
Hüt du dich!
Die werd’n dich überzwerch anschaun,
Hüt du dich! Hüt du dich!
Vertrau ihr nicht, sie narret dich.
She has two eyes and they are brown,
Take care!
She may look at you in high spirits,
Take care! Take care!
Trust her not, she’s fooling you.
Sie hat ein lichtgoldfarbnes Haar,
Hüt du dich!
Und was sie redt, das ist nicht wahr.
Hüt du dich! Hüt du dich!
Vertrau ihr nicht, sie narret dich.
She has hair that’s light and golden,
Take care!
And what she says, it is not true,
Take care! Take care!
Trust her not, she’s fooling you.
23
24
Sie gibt dir’n Körblein, fein gemacht,
Hüt du dich!
Für einen Narr’n wirst du gemacht,
Hüt du dich! Hüt du dich!
Vertrau ihr nicht, sie narret dich.
She’ll turn you down most cleverly,
Take care!
She will make a fool of you,
Take care! Take care!
Trust her not, she’s fooling you.
Ich wollt’, meine Lieb’ (Heinrich Heine)
Ich wollt’, meine Lieb’ ergösse sich
All in ein einzig Wort,
Das gäb ich den luft’gen Winden,
Die trügen es lustig fort.
I wish that I could pour my love
I wish that I could pour my love
Into a single word,
I’d give it to the merry winds,
Who’d bear it merrily away.
Sie tragen zu dir, Geliebte,
Das lieberfüllte Wort;
Du hörst es zu jeder Stunde,
Du hörst es an jedem Ort.
They’d bear it to you, beloved,
This word so full of love,
You’d hear it at every moment,
You’d hear it in every place.
Und hast du zum nächtlichen Schlummer
Geschlossen die Augen kaum,
So wird mein Bild dich verfolgen
Bis in den tiefsten Traum.
And when for your nightly slumber
You’ve scarcely closed your eyes,
My image will then pursue you
Into your deepest dream.
Abschiedslied der Zugvögel
(Hoffmann von Fallersleben)
Farewell song of the migrating birds
Wie war so schön doch Wald und Feld!
Wie ist so traurig jetzt die Welt!
Hin ist die schöne Sommerzeit
Und nach der Freude kam das Leid.
How beautiful were forest and field!
How sad the world is now!
Beautiful summertime has gone
And after joy sorrow has come.
Wir wussten nichts von Ungemach,
Wir sassen unterm Laubesdach
Vergnügt und froh beim Sonnenschein
Und sangen in die Welt hinein.
We knew nothing of discomfort,
Beneath a leafy canopy we sat
Content and happy in the sun
And sang out into the world.
Wir armen Vöglein trauern sehr,
Wir haben keine Heimat mehr,
Wir müssen jetzt von hinnen fliehn
Und in die weite Fremde ziehn.
We poor birds are now so sad,
We no longer have a homeland,
We must now fly far away
Into distant lands.
25
26
Gruß (Joseph von Eichendorff)
Wohin ich geh’ und schaue,
In Feld und Wald und Tal,
Vom Hügel hinauf die Aue,
Vom Berg aufwärts weit ins Blaue,
Grüß’ ich dich tausendmal.
Greeting
Wherever I walk and gaze,
Through valley, wood and field,
From mountaintop to meadow,
I, lovely gracious lady,
Greet you a thousand times.
In meinem Garten find’ ich
Viel’ Blumen, schön und fein,
Viel’ Kränze wohl draus wind’ ich
Und tausend Gedanken bind’ ich
Und Grüße mit darein.
I seek out in my garden
Many fine and lovely flowers,
Weaving many garlands,
Binding a thousand thoughts
And greetings with them too.
Dir darf ich keinen reichen,
Du bist zu hoch und schön,
Sie müssen zu bald verbleichen,
Die Liebe ohnegleichen
Bleibt ewig im Herzen stehn.
I cannot give a garland,
To her, so high and fine,
Which means that all must perish,
But love without compare
Remains forever in my heart.
Herbstlied (Karl Klingemann)
Ach, wie so bald verhallet der Reigen,
Wandelt sich Frühling in Winterzeit!
Ach, wie so bald in traurendes Schweigen
Wandelt sich alle die Fröhlichkeit!
Autumn song
Ah, how soon the dance echoes away,
How soon spring grows into winter!
Ah, how soon all happiness
Is changed to sad silence!
Bald sind die letzten Klänge verflogen!
Bald sind die letzten Sänger gezogen!
Bald ist das letzte Grün dahin!
Alle sie wollen heimwärts ziehn!
Soon the last sounds will have vanished!
Soon the last songbirds will have gone!
Soon the last green will have fled!
All now wish to return home!
Ach, wie so bald verhallet der Reigen,
Wandelt sich Lust in sehnendes Leid.
Ah, how soon the dance echoes away,
Pleasure changes into yearning anguish!
Wart ihr ein Traum, ihr Liebesgedanken?
Süß wie der Lenz und schnell verweht?
Eines, nur eines will nimmer wanken:
Es ist das Sehnen, das nimmer vergeht.
Were you a dream, you thoughts of love?
Sweet as spring and quickly gone?
One thing only will never change:
Yearning that will never fade away.
27
Ach, wie so bald verhallet der Reigen!
Ach, wie so bald in traurendes Schweigen
Wandelt sich alle die Fröhlichkeit!
Ah, how soon the dance echoes away!
Ah, how soon all happiness
Is changed to sad silence!
Volkslied
(Robert Burns, trs. Ferdinand Freiligrath)
Folksong
O säh’ ich auf der Heide dort
Im Sturme dich, im Sturme dich,
Mit meinem Mantel vor dem Sturm
Beschützt’ ich dich, beschützt’ ich dich!
Und kommt mit seinem Sturme je
Dir Unglück nah, dir Unglück nah,
Dann wär dies Herz dein Zufluchtsort,
Gern teilt’ ich’s ja, gern teilt’ ich’s ja!
O, wert thou in the cauld blast
On yonder lea, on yonder lea,
My plaidie to the angry airt,
I’d shelter thee, I’d shelter thee.
Or did Misfortune’s bitter storms
Around thee blaw, around thee blaw,
Thy bield should be my bosom,
To share it a’, to share it a’.
O wär’ ich in der Wüste, die
So braun und dürr, so braun und dürr,
Zum Paradiese würde sie,
Wärst du bei mir, wärst du bei mir.
Und wär ein König ich, und wär
Die Erde mein, die Erde mein,
Du wärst in meiner Krone doch
Der schönste Stein, der schönste Stein.
Or were I in the wildest waste,
Sae black and bare, sae black and bare,
The desert were a Paradise,
If thou wert there, if thou wert there.
Or were I monarch o the globe,
Wi thee to reign, wi thee to reign,
The brightest jewel in my crown
Wad be my queen, wad be my queen.
Maiglöckchen und die Blümelein
(Hoffmann von Fallersleben)
Maiglöckchen läutet in dem Tal,
Das klingt so hell und fein;
So kommt zum Reigen allzumal,
Ihr lieben Blümelein!
Die Blümchen, blau und gelb und weiß,
Die kommen all herbei,
Vergißmeinnicht und Ehrenpreis
Und Veilchen sind dabei.
Lily-of-the-valley and the little flowers
Maiglöckchen spielt zum Tanz im Nu
Und alle tanzen dann;
Der Mond sieht ihnen freundlich zu,
Hat seine Freude dran.
Den Junker Reif verdross das sehr,
Er kommt ins Tal hinein;
Maiglöckchen spielt zum Tanz nicht mehr,
Fort sind die Blümelein.
The lily-of-the-valley plays at once,
And all now start to dance,
The moon looks on happily,
And shares in the fun.
Master hoar-frost sulks and sulks,
He comes into the valley:
The lily-of-the valley stops its dance-music,
Away go the little flowers.
Doch kaum der Reif das Tal verläßt,
Da rufet wieder schnell
Maiglöckchen zu dem Frühlingsfest
Und läutet doppelt hell.
Nun hälts auch mich nicht mehr zu Haus,
Maiglöckchen ruft auch mich;
Die Blümchen gehn zum Tanz hinaus,
Zum Tanze geh auch ich!
But as soon as the hoar-frost has left the valley,
Lily-of-the-valley swiflty summons
All to the spring festivities
And rings out twice as brightly.
Now I can no longer stay inside,
The lily-of-the-valley calls me too:
The little flowers go out to the dance,
And to the dance go I!
Translations by Richard Stokes
CHRCD063
The lily-of-the-valley rings out in the valley,
Resounding bright and clear:
Gather round and dance,
All you darling little flowers!
Blue and yellow and white little flowers,
All gather now around,
Forget-me-nots and speedwells
And violets all are there.
LUDWIG THUILLE: SONGS
SOPHIE BEVAN - soprano
JENNIFER JOHNSTON - mezzo-soprano
MARY BEVAN - soprano
JOSEPH MIDDLETON - piano
For this new and revelatory Champs Hill
Records release, championing the songs of
Ludwig Thuille, in-demand accompanist
Joseph Middleton brings together some of
the finest young voices in the UK. Many of
these songs are recorded for the first time,
following extensive diligent research to
locate the music. Songs for soprano and for
mezzo-soprano, are accompanied on this 2CD set by three winsome trios.
“Sophie Bevan is pure sunshine ... what an
enchanting performer she is ...”
Daily Telegraph
“[Johnston has] serene, majestic sound and
fine taste.” Bachtrack
CHRCD046
ALSO AVAILABLE...
28
LIEDER FOR THE TURN OF A CENTURY
KATHERINE BRODERICK - soprano
MALCOLM MARTINEAU - piano
A delectable programme with three sets of
songs from both sides of the turn of the 20th
century. Works by Strauss, Berg, and
Schoenberg’s setting of the Brettl Lieder
provide overripe romanticism, lyrical song,
and cabaret humour.
“... stunning study of dynamic and tonal
subtleties...Broderick is an exceptional
communicator.” American Record Guide
“... a highly desirable debut recital ... both
the programme and the singing should win her
many new admirers” MusicWeb International