Program Notes - Lincoln Center`s Great Performers

The Program
Thursday Evening, March 10, 2016, at 7:30
Art of the Song
Karita Mattila, Soprano
Martin Katz, Piano
BRAHMS Zigeunerlieder (1887–88)
He, Zigeuner
Hochgetürmte Rimaflut
Wißt ihr, wann mein Kindchen
Lieber Gott, du weißt
Brauner Bursche führt zum Tanze
Röslein dreie in der Reihe
Kommt dir manchmal in den Sinn
Rote Abendwolken
WAGNER Fünf Gedichte für eine Frauenstimme (“WesendonckLieder”) (1857–58)
Der Engel
Stehe still!
Im Treibhaus
Schmerzen
Traüme
Intermission
Please make certain all your electronic devices are switched off.
This performance is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.
Steinway Piano
Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater
Adrienne Arsht Stage
Great Performers
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Support is provided by Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser, Audrey Love Charitable Foundation,
Great Performers Circle, Chairman’s Council, and Friends of Lincoln Center.
Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts.
Endowment support for Symphonic Masters is provided by the Leon Levy Fund.
Endowment support is also provided by UBS.
MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center
UPCOMING ART OF THE SONG EVENT IN ALICE TULLY HALL:
Wednesday Evening, April 20, 2016 at 7:30
Matthias Goerne, Baritone
Alexander Schmalcz, Piano
SCHUMANN: Der Einsiedler; Einsamkeit; Requiem
EISLER: Selections from Hollywood Liederbuch
WOLF: Harfenspieler I, III, II
EISLER: Selections from Die Hollywood-Elegien
WOLF: Grenzen der Menschheit
WOLF: Sonne der Schlummerlosen
WOLF: Morgenstimmung
EISLER: 2 Lieder (after B. Pascal)
SCHUMANN: Abendlied
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Great Performers I The Program
BERG Vier Lieder, Op. 2 (1909–10)
Dem Schmerz sein Recht
Schlafend trägt man mich
Nun ich der Riesen Stärksten überwand
Warm die Lüfte
STRAUSS Der Stern (1918)
Wiegenlied (1899)
Meinem Kinde (1897)
Ach Lieb, ich muß nun scheiden (1887–88)
Wie sollten wir geheim sie halten (1885–88)
Allerseelen (1885)
Cäcilie (1894)
Snapshot
Great Performers
By Thomas Denny
Timeframe
This evening’s program, featuring songs
from four successive generations of great
German-Austrian composers, spans an
eventful 50 years in the history of late
Romantic music. The Wagner and Berg
songs bookend a critical historical trajectory
that stretched from the revolutionary chromaticism of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde
to the free atonality of early 20th-century
modernism. The Brahms and Strauss sets,
although falling between the bookends,
expose the limitations of such a tidy linear
narrative. Despite Schoenberg’s famous
essay Brahms the Progressive, Brahms
remains the principal heir to the Schubert
and Schumann tradition. His Zigeunerlieder
offer a wonderful example of 19th-century
excursions into exoticism.
ARTS
Depending on the decade and the project,
Strauss could write music far out on the cutting edge or music that felt comfortably nostalgic. The selected Strauss songs, which
are the only set on the program that were
not created as a unit by the composer, epitomize the late Romantic aesthetic, yet offer
little hint of how far Berg would push the
language just a few years later.
—Copyright © 2016 by Lincoln Center for the
Performing Arts, Inc.
1888
Brahms’s Zigeunerlieder
Vincent van Gogh paints SelfPortrait in Front of an Easel.
1858
Wagner’s WesendonckLieder
London’s new Royal Opera
House–Covent Garden
reopens after a fire.
1910
Berg’s Vier Lieder
T. S. Eliot pens The Love
Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
SCIENCE
1888
George Eastman is granted a
patent for his roll film camera,
and registers the trademark
Kodak.
1858
Fingerprinting is initiated as a
personal identification method
by William Herschel.
1910
Public radio broadcasting is
born with an experimental live
broadcast of Tosca.
IN NEW YORK
1888
Bloomingdale’s opens at
59th Street and 3rd Avenue.
1858
Theodore Roosevelt is born
at 28 East 20th Street.
1910
Manhattan’s population
reaches 23 million.
Notes on the Program
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
By Thomas Denny
Zigeunerlieder, Op. 103 (1887–88)
JOHANNES BRAHMS
Born May 7, 1833, in Hamburg, Germany
Died April 3, 1897, in Vienna
Approximate length: 14 minutes
Composers as diverse as Schubert, Liszt, Sarasate, Johann Strauss,
and Brahms succumbed to the exotic allure of “gypsy” or
“Hungarian” music. This music was neither the traditional folk
music of the gypsies nor of the Hungarian peasantry. Rather,
“gypsy” music was a commercially popular urban music heard in
cafes and restaurants, domestic music-making, operettas, and even
at court balls and other fashionable society events. Brahms composed his Op. 103 Zigeunerlieder just two years after the premiere
of Johann Strauss’s popular operetta The Gypsy Baron.
Brahms loved to retreat to beautiful alpine settings where he would
spend the summer composing. Much of his work on the
Zigeunerlieder took place at Thun in Switzerland in 1887. He spent
three straight summers there with friends, including Hermine Spies,
the soprano for whom he wrote so many songs during the 1880s.
The Op. 103 “gypsy songs” began life as a set of 11 partsongs, for
four voices with piano accompaniment. He took the texts, but not
the melodies, from a contemporary collection of “Hungarian songs,”
translated by Hugo Conrat. The music is largely original. Three years
later, Brahms would again dip into Conrat’s collection to find texts for
four songs from his Op. 112. In the summer of 1888, Brahms
arranged eight of the 11 into the solo versions heard this evening.
The Zigeunerlieder gave Brahms great pleasure. He told Lisl von
Herzogenberg, his confidante, that they were “exceedingly gay.”
But he also knew they would be a commercial success, and his
“gypsy songs” invite comparison with two others of Brahms’s commercially successful works. They share the exotic “gypsy” ethos
with the four books of Hungarian Dances for piano duet. With
Liebeslieder Waltzes they share not only the partsong with piano
medium, but also a similar compositional strategy. In both, Brahms
created a large-scale cycle that transfigures one of Europe’s popular
music styles, the triple-time waltz for Liebeslieder and the 2/4
czardas for Zigeunerlieder. Brahms was shrewd enough to insist
that the Zigeunerlieder were published by Christmas. His good
friend, Eduard Hanslick, the music critic, even wrote in his review,
“they will make good Christmas presents.”
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Zigeunerlieder
Text: Traditional Hungarian
Gypsy Songs
Trans.: Hugo Conrat
He, Zigeuner
He, Zigeuner, greife in die Saiten
ein!
Spiel das Lied vom ungetreuen
Mägdelein!
Laß die Saiten weinen, klagen,
traurig bange,
Bis die heiße Träne netzet diese
Wange!
Ho there, Gypsy!
Ho there, Gypsy! Strike resoundingly
each string!
Play the song of the faithless maid!
Make the strings cry, complain—
sad, fearful,
till a hot tear wets this cheek!
Hochgetürmte Rimaflut
Hochgetürmte Rimaflut,
Wie bist du so trüb,
An dem Ufer klag ich
Laut nach dir, mein Lieb!
Mountainous Rima waters
Mountainous Rima waters,
how you are muddy!
On the bank I stand,
cry loud for you, my love!
Wellen fliehen, Wellen strömen,
Rauschen an dem Strand heran zu
mir,
An dem Rimaufer laßt mich
Ewig weinen nach ihr!
Waves flee, waves pour,
roar at me on the shore,
let me forever on Rima’s bank
weep for her!
Wißt ihr, wann mein Kindchen am
allerschönsten ist?
Wenn ihr süßes Mündchen scherzt
und lacht und küßt.
Mägdelein, du bist mein, inniglich
küß ich dich,
Dich erschuf der liebe Himmel einzig
nur für mich!
Do you know when my love is
loveliest?
Do you know when my love is
loveliest?
When her sweet lips jest, laugh, and
kiss.
Mine you are, maiden, tenderly I
kiss you,
for me alone sweet heaven made
you!
Wißt ihr, wann mein Liebster am
besten mir gefällt?
Wenn in seinen Armen er mich
umschlungen hält.
Schätzelein, du bist mein, inniglich
küß ich dich,
Dich erschuf der liebe Himmel einzig
nur für mich!
Do you know when I like my lover
best?
When he holds me with his arms
about me.
Mine you are, my love, tenderly I
kiss you,
for me alone sweet heaven made
you!
Wißt ihr, wann mein Kindchen
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Lieber Gott, du weißt
Lieber Gott, du weißt, wie oft bereut
ich hab,
Daß ich meinem Liebsten einst ein
Küßchen gab.
Herz gebot, daß ich ihn küssen muß,
Denk, solang ich leb, an diesen
ersten Kuß.
Dear God, you know
Dear God, you know how often I
have rued
that once I gave my love a tiny kiss.
My heart decreed that I must kiss him.
All my life I’ll think of that first kiss.
Lieber Gott, du weißt, wie oft in
stiller Nacht
Ich in Lust und Leid an meinen
Schatz gedacht.
Lieb ist süß, wenn bitter auch die Reu,
Armes Herz bleibt ihm ewig, ewig treu.
Dear God, you know how often on
still nights
I’ve thought in joy and pain of my
beloved.
Love is sweet, though regret is bitter,
to him my poor heart stays ever true.
Brauner Bursche führt zum Tanze
Brauner Bursche führt zum Tanze
Sein blauäugig schönes Kind,
Schlägt die Sporen keck zusammen,
Csardasmelodie beginnt,
A bronzed lad leads to dance
A bronzed lad leads to dance
his fair, blue-eyed lass,
boldly clashes his spurs,
the csardas begins;
Küßt und herzt sein süßes Täubchen,
Dreht sie, führt sie, jauchzt und
springt;
Wirft drei blanke Silbergulden
Auf das Zimbal, daß es klingt.
He kisses and caresses his sweet
dove,
whirls her, guides her, shouts for joy,
leaps;
throws three shining silver florins
on the cymbal, making it resound.
Röslein dreie in der Reihe
Three little roses in the row
Röslein dreie in der Reihe blühn so
rot,
Daß der Bursch zum Mädel gehe, ist
kein Verbot!
Lieber Gott, wenn das verboten wär,
Ständ die schöne weite Welt schon
längst nicht mehr,
Ledig bleiben Sünde wär!
Three little roses in the row bloom so
red,
No law against boy going to girl!
Schönstes Städtchen in Alföld ist
Ketschkemet,
Dort gibt es gar viele Mädchen
schmuck und nett!
Freunde, sucht euch dort ein
Bräutchen aus,
Freit um ihre Hand und gründet euer
Haus,
Freudenbecher leeret aus.
The fairest lowland town is
Kecskemet,
here many a maid is neat and nice!
If, dear God, there were,
the fair wide world were long since
done for.
Staying single is what would be a sin!
Find yourselves a bride there, friends,
woo her, set up your home,
drain cups of joy.
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Kommt dir manchmal in den sinn
Kommt dir manchmal in den Sinn,
mein süßes Lieb,
Was du einst mit heilgem Eide mir
gelobt?
Täusch mich nicht, verlaß mich nicht,
Du weißt nicht, wie lieb ich dich hab,
Lieb du mich, wie ich dich,
Dann strömt Gottes Huld auf dich
herab!
Rote Abendwolken
Rote Abendwolken ziehn am
Firmament,
Sehnsuchtsvoll nach dir,
Mein Lieb, das Herze brennt,
Himmel strahlt in glühnder Pracht,
Und ich träum bei Tag und Nacht
Nur allein von dem süßen Liebchen
mein
Do you sometimes recall
Do you sometimes recall, my sweet,
what once you vowed to me with
sacred oath?
Do not deceive me, do not forsake me,
you do not know how much I love you;
love me as I love you.
Then down on you God’s grace will
pour!
Red clouds of evening
Red clouds of evening sail the sky
longingly to you;
my love, my heart burns,
Heaven shines in glowing splendor,
and day and night I dream
of none but my sweet love.
Fünf Gedichte für eine Frauenstimme (“Wesendonck-Lieder”) (1857–58)
RICHARD WAGNER
Born May 22, 1813, in Leipzig
Died February 13, 1883, in Venice
Approximate length: 25 minutes
Songs are an anomaly in Wagner’s output, as he channeled his creative energy
almost exclusively into operas. One could say that the Wesendonck-Lieder are
a biographical accident. The songs arose out of a very specific moment of intimacy between Wagner and Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of a generous
patron and friend. Although their love may never have been consummated,
Mathilde played the muse to Wagner’s most intense explorations of unfettered
and illicit love, the one-night stand between twin sister and brother in Die
Walküre and the adulterous relationship at the heart of Tristan und Isolde.
In 1857, Otto Wesendonck built a new villa in Zurich that included a smaller
house for Wagner and his first wife, Minna. It proved a bad idea, as proximity
only led to an intensification of the relationship between Wagner and Mathilde.
By the following summer, Wagner’s marriage was over and both he and Minna
had been forced to leave the Wesendonck property. The songs stem from this
highly charged year. Between November 1857 and May 1858, Mathilde presented Wagner with five poems, which he set to music almost immediately
after receiving them.
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Wagner shuffled the order of the songs when he published them, and performers generally use the published order. Yet given that the poems and songs arise
one by one out of a period of increasing passion and ultimately of crisis, it is interesting to map the order of creation onto the events in Zurich during these
intense months.
Three songs—”Der Engel,” “Träume,” and “Schmerzen”—date from a blissful
period in late 1857. Otto was in America on an extended business trip. Contact
was regular between Wagner and Mathilde, and the two freely exchanged gifts
and intimate notes. For Mathilde’s birthday on December 23, Wagner organized a
surprise performance of “Träume” arranged for a chamber orchestra. Labeled by
Wagner as a study for Tristan, “Träume” contains music he later used in the rapturous Act 2 love duet—”Oh descend, night of love”—between Tristan, King
Mark’s most loyal knight, and Isolde, Mark’s wife.
There may have been domestic tension following Otto’s return in January. In any
event, contact between Wagner and Mathilde was less frequent and more
restrained. The song, “Stehe Still,” from mid-February, may capture some of this.
On April 7, Minna intercepted a letter Wagner had written to Mathilde.
Confrontation and crisis followed. Minna, always frail, left almost immediately to
take a three-month cure at Brestenburg. Two weeks later, Mathilde sent Wagner
a final poem, “Im Treibhaus.” On May 1, Wagner composed this “study for
Tristan,” using music that would open Act 3, where Tristan, back at his ancestral
home, lies mortally wounded and delirious. Mathilde’s poem is built around the
image of a hothouse plant, outwardly thriving yet captive, overwhelmed by painful
feeling that its “home is not here.” Wagner would move to Venice during the
summer, where he would continue with composition of Tristan.
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Fünf Gedichte für eine Frauenstimme
Text: Mathilde Wesendonck
Five Poems for Woman’s Voice
Der Engel
In der Kindheit frühen Tagen
Hört ich oft von Engeln sagen,
Die des Himmels hehre Wonne
Tauschen mit der Erdensonne,
The Angel
In early days of childhood,
often I heard talk of angels
who heaven’s glorious bliss
exchange for the sun of earth,
Daß, wo bang ein Herz in Sorgen
Schmachtet vor der Welt verborgen,
Daß, wo still es will verbluten,
Und vergehn in Tränenfluten,
so that when, in dread sorrow, a heart
yearns, hidden from the world;
when it wishes silently to bleed
and perish in streams of tears;
Daß, wo brünstig sein Gebet
Einzig um Erlösung fleht,
Da der Engel niederschwebt,
Und es sanft gen Himmel hebt.
when its fervent prayer
begs only for deliverance,
then down that angel floats
and raises it gently to heaven.
Ja, es stieg auch mir ein Engel nieder,
Und auf leuchtendem Gefieder
Führt er, ferne jedem Schmerz,
Meinen Geist nun himmelwärts!
And to me an angel has come down,
and upon gleaming wings,
it bears far from every pain
my spirit now heavenwards!
Stehe still!
Sausendes, brausendes Rad der Zeit,
Messer du der Ewigkeit;
Leuchtende Sphären im weiten All,
Die ihr umringt den Weltenball;
Urewige Schöpfung, halte doch ein,
Genug des Werdens, laß mich sein!
Stand still!
Whirring, rushing wheel of time,
measure of eternity;
gleaming spheres in the wide universe,
you who surround the globe of earth;
eternal creation, cease,
enough of becoming, let me be!
Halte an dich, zeugende Kraft,
Urgedanke, der ewig schafft!
Hemmet den Atem, stillet den Drang,
Schweigend nur eine Sekunde lang!
Schwellende Pulse, fesselt den
Schlag;
Ende, des Wollens ewger Tag!
Cease, generative powers,
primal, ever-creating thought!
Stop your breath, still your urge
in silence for just one second!
Surging pulses, fetter your beating;
end, eternal day of willing!
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
That in blessed, sweet oblivion
I might measure all my bliss!
When eye drinks eye in bliss,
soul drowns utterly in soul;
being rediscovers itself in being,
and the goal of every hope is near;
when lips are mute in silent wonder,
Daß in selig süßem Vergessen
Ich mög alle Wonne ermessen!
Wenn Auge in Auge wonnig trinken,
Seele ganz in Seele versinken;
Wesen in Wesen sich wiederfindet,
Und alles Hoffens Ende sich kündet,
Die Lippe verstummt in staunendem
Schweigen,
Keinen Wunsch mehr will das Innre
zeugen:
Erkennt der Mensch des Ewgen Spur,
Und löst dein Rätsel, heilge Natur!
and the heart no further wish
desires—
then man perceives eternity’s sign,
and solves your riddle, holy Nature!
Im Treibhaus
Hochgewölbte Blätterkronen,
Baldachine von Smaragd,
Kinder ihr aus fernen Zonen,
Saget mir, warum ihr klagt?
In the Greenhouse
High-vaulted leafy crowns,
canopies of emerald,
children of distant zones,
tell me why you grieve?
Schweigend neiget ihr die Zweige,
Malet Zeichen in die Luft,
Und der Leiden stummer Zeuge
Steiget aufwärts, süßer Duft.
Silent, you bend your branches,
draw signs upon the air,
and, as mute witness to your sorrows,
a sweet fragrance rises.
Weit in sehnendem Verlangen
Breitet ihr die Arme aus,
Und umschlinget wahnbefangen
Öder Leere nichtgen Graus.
With longing and desire, wide
you open your arms,
and, victim of delusion, embrace
desolation’s awful void.
Wohl, ich weiß es, arme Pflanze;
Ein Geschicke teilen wir,
Ob umstrahlt von Licht und Glanze,
Unsre Heimat ist nicht hier!
Well I know, poor plant;
one fate we share,
though bathed in light and glory,
our homeland is not here!
Und wie froh die Sonne scheidet
Von des Tages leerem Schein,
Hüllet der, der wahrhaft leidet,
Sich in Schweigens Dunkel ein.
And as, gladly, the sun parts
from the empty gleam of day,
so he truly suffers, veils
himself in the dark of silence.
Stille wird’s, ein säuselnd Weben
Füllet bang den dunklen Raum:
Schwere Tropfen seh ich schweben
An der Blätter grünem Saum.
Quiet it grows, a whisper, a stir
fills the dark room uneasily:
heavy drops I see hanging
on the leaves’ green edge.
(Please turn the page quietly.)
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Schmerzen
Sonne, weinest jeden Abend
Dir die schönen Augen rot,
Wenn im Meeresspiegel badend
Dich erreicht der frühe Tod!
Anguish
Sun, each evening you weep
your fair eyes red,
when, bathing in the sea’s mirror,
you are overtaken by early death.
Doch erstehst in alter Pracht,
Glorie der düstren Welt,
Du am Morgen neu erwacht,
Wie ein stolzer Siegesheld!
Yet, in your old splendor, you rise,
glory of the somber world,
newly awakened in the morning,
a proud, heroic conqueror!
Ach, wie sollte ich da klagen,
Wie, mein Herz, so schwer dich sehn,
Muß die Sonne selbst verzagen,
Muß die Sonne untergehn?
Ah, why should I lament,
and see you, my heart, so oppressed,
if the sun itself must despair,
if the sun must sink?
Und gebieret Tod nur Leben,
Geben Schmerzen Wonne nur:
O wie dank ich, daß gegeben
Solche Schmerzen mir Natur!
And if death beget only like,
and anguish bring only delight:
Oh, how I give thanks that
nature gave me such anguish!
Träume
Sag, welch wunderbare Träume
Halten meinen Sinn umfangen,
Daß sie nicht wie leere Schäume
Sind in ödes Nichts vergangen?
Dreams
Say, what wondrous dreams
embrace my senses,
that they have not, like bubbles,
vanished to a desolate void?
Träume, die in jeder Stunde,
Jedem Tage schöner blühn,
Und mit ihrer Himmelskunde
Selig durchs Gemüte ziehn!
Dreams, that with each hour,
each day bloom fairer,
and with their heavenly tidings
pass blissfully through the mind!
Träume, die wie hehre Strahlen
In die Seele sich versenken,
Dort ein ewig Bild zu malen:
Allvergessen, Eingedenken!
Dreams, which like sacred rays
plunge into the soul,
there to paint an eternal picture:
forgetting all, remembering one!
Träume, wie wenn Frühlingssonne
Aus dem Schnee die Blüten küßt,
Daß zu nie geahnter Wonne
Sie der neue Tag begrüßt,
Dreams, as when spring sun
kisses the buds from the snow,
so that into never-suspected bliss
the new day welcomes them,
Daß sie wachsen, daß sie blühen,
Träumend spenden ihren Duft,
Sanft an deiner Brust verglühen,
Und dann sinken in die Gruft.
so that they grow and bloom,
dreaming bestow their scent,
gently glow and die upon your breast,
then sink into the grave.
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Vier Lieder, Op. 2 (1909–10)
ALBAN BERG
Born February 9, 1885, in Vienna
Died December 24, 1935, in Vienna
Approximate length: 9 minutes
Songs had been Berg’s entry into composition. Beginning when he was 16, he
wrote songs that were performed within the family circle. He submitted five of
these early songs to Schoenberg, who accepted Berg as a pupil in 1904.
Schoenberg saw Berg’s innate lyrical gifts, but also a wholly deficient craft. He
put Berg through three years of basic harmony and counterpoint, and only then
did they move on to short compositional exercises for instruments. Yet
Schoenberg did not discourage Berg from continuing to compose songs on the
side. The Seven Early Songs that Berg published in 1928 were among the many
songs he composed during these student years.
Berg’s Op. 2 songs from 1909–10 are different. He wrote and published them—
along with the Op. 1 piano sonata and the Op. 3 string quartet—under
Schoenberg’s tutelage. As the first ripe fruit of his studies with the modernist master, these three early opuses mark Berg’s emergence as a professional composer.
Vienna—which was home to Klimt, Schnitzler, Mahler, Loos, Freud, and
Schoenberg—was at the center of European artistic and intellectual ferment
during the first decade of the 20th century. Berg soaked up all the latest developments, including, of course, Schoenberg’s atonal explorations. In his Op. 2
songs, Berg walks the boundary between tonality and atonality. Much like the
four movements of Schoenberg’s second string quartet of 1907–08, Berg
begins his set with three songs in a highly chromatic yet tonal idiom before
breaking free into the atonal world of the final song.
Dem Schmerz sein Recht
Text: Friedrich Hebbel
Giving Pain Its Due
Schlafen, schlafen, nichts als schlafen!
Kein Erwachen, keinen Traum!
Jener Wehen, die mich trafen,
Leisestes Erinnern kaum,
Daß ich, wenn des Lebens Fülle
Nieder klingt in meine Ruh,
Nur noch tiefer mich verhülle,
Fester zu die Augen tu!
Sleep sleep, naught but sleep!
No awakening, no dream!
Of those woes that befell me,
scarce the faintest memory,
so that, when life’s profusion
resoundingly descends into my rest,
I may veil myself more heavily,
and my eyes more tightly shut!
(Please turn the page quietly.)
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Schlafend trägt man mich
Text: Alfred Mombert
Sleeping I am Borne
Schlafend trägt man mich
In mein Heimatland.
Ferne komm’ ich her,
Über Gipfel, über Schlünde,
Über ein dunkles Meer
In mein Heimatland.
Sleeping I am borne
to my homeland.
From afar I come,
over mountain, gorge,
over a dark ocean
to my homeland.
Nun ich der Riesen Stärksten
überwand
Text: Alfred Mombert
Now I’ve Overcome the Mightiest
Ogres
Nun ich der Riesen Stärksten
überwand,
Aus dem dunkelsten Land
Mich heimfand
An einer weißen Märchenhand—
Now I’ve overcome the mightiest
ogres,
out of the darkest country
have found my way home
on a white, fairy-tale hand—
Hallen schwer die Glocken.
Und ich wanke durch die Straßen
Schlafbefangen.
Ponderous sound the bells,
and I stagger the streets,
sleep-vanquished.
Warm die Lüfte
Text: Alfred Mombert
Warm the Breezes
Warm die Lüfte,
Es sprießt Gras auf sonnigen Wiesen.
Horch!—
Horch, es flötet die Nachtigall…
Ich will singen:
Warm the breezes,
grass sprouts on sunny meadows,
Hark!—
Hark, the nightingale flutes…
I will sing:
Droben hoch im düstern Bergforst,
Es schmilzt und sickert kalter Schnee,
Ein Mädchen in grauem Kleide
Lehnt an feuchtem Eichstamm,
Krank sind ihre zarten Wangen,
Die grauen Aufen fiebern
Durch Düsteriesenstämme.
“Er kommt noch nicht. Er läßt mich
warten”…
High in the gloomy mountain forest
cold snow melts and trickles,
a girl in a grey dress
leans on a wet oak-trunk,
her tender cheeks are sick,
her grey eyes stare feverishly
through the gloom of the great trunks.
“He does not yet come. He makes
me wait”…
Stirb!
Der Eine stirbt, daneben der Andere
lebt:
Das macht die Welt so tiefschön.
Die!
One dies, against which the other
lives:
That makes the world so profoundly
beautiful.
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Der Stern, Op. 69, No. 1 (1918)
Wiegenlied, Op. 41, No.1 (1899)
Meinem Kinde, Op. 37, No. 3 (1897)
Ach Lieb, ich muß nun scheiden, Op. 21, No. 3 (1887–88)
Wie sollten wir geheim sie halten, Op. 19, No. 4 (1885–88)
Allerseelen, Op. 10, No. 8 (1885)
Cäcilie, Op. 27, No. 2 (1894)
RICHARD STRAUSS
Born June 11, 1864, in Munich
Died September 8, 1949, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
Approximate length: 25 minutes
Strauss had a lifelong love affair with the female voice. He was more or less
raised in the opera house, for his father—a performer of international renown—
held the principal horn position in the Bavarian Court Opera. His aunt, Johanna
Pschorr, was a fine amateur mezzo-soprano who sang his early lieder within the
family circle. In 1894 Strauss married a professional soprano, Pauline de Ahna.
To celebrate their marriage, Strauss wrote his Op. 27, which includes
“Allerseelen” from this evening’s program and some other of his most beautiful songs. De Ahna sang in operas that he conducted, including the role of
Elisabeth in Tannhäuser for his Bayreuth premiere. Until her retirement from
singing in 1906, they toured the world together performing lieder recitals.
Strauss was a precocious child musician. His father, whose musical tastes
were decidedly conservative, guided his musical training, giving Strauss a firm
foundation in his craft but discouraging any interest in the progressive trends
influenced by Wagner. Strauss gradually broke free from his father’s control
during several years of touring major German musical centers. Scholars generally view 1885 as the turning point in his liberation, the year in which Hans
von Bulöw, the influential conductor, hired Strauss as assistant conductor at
Meiningen. Strauss embraced the “music of the future.”
The core years of Strauss’s spectacular ascent, from 1885 roughly up to his
50th birthday and World War I, divides into two phases. In the first, his main
compositional focus was tone poems, along with a steady stream of lieder.
Most of his famous lieder, including all but one of the songs on today’s program, date from this period. From about 1900 on, opera became his central
focus, and lieder more or less fell off his radar. After 1918, Strauss again began
to compose some songs, including this evening’s “Der Stern.” His “Four Last
Songs,” for soprano and orchestra, stand as one of the crowning glories of the
repertoire and his final tribute to the beauties of the female voice.
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Der Stern
Text: Ludwig Achim von Arnim
The Star
Ich sehe ihn wieder den lieblichen
Stern;
Er winket hernieder, er nahte mir
gern;
Er wärmet und funkelt, je näher er
kömmt,
Die andern verdunkelt, die Herzen
beklemmt.
I see it again, the charming star;
Die Haare im Fliegen er eilet mir zu,
Das Volk träumt von Siegen, ich
träume von Ruh’.
Die andern sich deuten die Zukunft
daraus,
Vergangene Zeiten mir leuchten ins
Haus.
it beckons from above, it approached
me with pleasure;
it warms and sparkles; the closer it
gets,
it outshines the others and
oppresses the heart.
It hurries to me with its hair in the
wind,
people dream of victory, I dream of
peace.
The others read the future from it,
the past shines for me in my home.
Wiegenlied
Text: Richard Dehmel
Lullaby
Trans.: ©1999 Columbia Artists
Management by Janet Gillespie
Träume, träume, du mein süßes
Leben,
Von dem Himmel, der die Blumen
bringt.
Blüten schimmern da, die leben
Von dem Lied, das deine Mutter
singt.
Dream, dream, you my sweet life,
of heaven, that brings the flowers.
Blossoms shimmer there, and quiver
with the song that your mother
sings.
Träume, träume, Knospe meiner
Sorgen,
Von dem Tage, da die Blume sproß;
Von dem hellen Blütenmorgen,
Da dein Seelchen sich der Welt
erschloß.
Dream, dream, bud of my care,
Träume, träume, Blüte meiner Liebe,
Von der stillen, von der heilgen Nacht,
Da die Blume seiner Liebe
Diese Welt zum Himmel mir
gemacht.
Dream, dream, blossom of my love,
of the silent, holy night,
when the flower of his love
made this world into heaven for me.
of the day the flower opened;
of that bright blossom-morning
when your soul opened to the world.
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Meinem Kinde
Text: Gustav Falke
For my child
Du schläfst und sachte neig’ ich mich
Über dein Bettchen und segne dich.
Jeder behutsame Atemzug
Ist ein schweifender Himmelsflug,
Ist ein Suchen weit umher,
Ob nicht doch ein Sternlein wär’
Wo aus eitel Glanz und Licht
Liebe sich ein Glückskraut bricht,
Das sie geflügelt herniederträgt
Und dir auf’s weiße Deckchen legt.
You sleep, and I gently bend
over your bed and bless you.
Every careful breath you take
is a sweeping flight through heaven,
is a searching far and wide
for a star,
where love plucks a sprig of happiness
from amongst vain shimmer and light
that is wafted down,
and laid next to you on your white
quilt.
Ach Lieb, ich muß nun scheiden
Text: Felix Ludwig Julius Dahn
Ah love, I must now leave
Trans.: ©1999 Janet Gillespie
Ach Lieb, ich muß nun scheiden,
Gehn über Berg und Tal,
Die Erlen und die Weiden,
Die weinen allzumal.
Ah love, I must now leave,
going over mountain and valley,
the alders and the willows,
they weep one and all.
Sie sahn so oft uns wandern
Zusammen an Baches Rand,
Das eine ohn’ den andern
Geht über ihren Verstand.
So often they saw us walk
together on the brook’s edge,
when they see one of us without the
other,
they will not understand.
Die Erlen und die Weiden
Vor Schmerz in Tränen stehn,
Nun denket, wie’s uns beiden
Erst muß zu Herzen gehn.
The alders and the willows
will stand weeping in pain,
just think how it will feel
in our hearts!
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Wie sollten wir geheim sie halten
Text: Adolf Friedrich von Schack
How should we keep it a secret
Wie sollten wir geheim sie halten,
Die Seligkeit, die uns erfüllt?
Nein, bis in seine tiefsten Falten
Sei allen unser Herz enthüllt!
How should we keep it secret,
the bliss with which we’re filled?
No, to their deepest places,
let our hearts be revealed to all!
Wenn zwei in Liebe sich gefunden,
Geht Jubel hin durch die Natur,
In längern wonnevollen Stunden
Legt sich der Tag auf Wald und Flur.
When two find themselves in love,
jubilation pervades nature,
and in longer hours of bliss
the day descends on wood and field.
Selbst aus der Eiche morschem Stamme,
Die ein Jahrtausend überlebt,
Steigt neu des Wipfels grüne Flamme
Und rauscht von Jugendlust durchbebt.
Even from the oak’s rotted trunk,
surviving for a thousand years,
the leaves’ green flame ascends anew,
rustling, thrilling to youth’s zest.
Zu höherm Glanz und Dufte brechen
Die Knospen auf beim Glück der Zwei,
Und süßer rauscht es in den Bächen
Und reicher blüht und reicher glänzt
der Mai.
To heightened scent and gleam, buds
burst at the happiness of the two,
and brooks murmur more sweetly,
and May shines and blossoms more
richly.
Allerseelen
Text: Hermann von Gilm
All Souls’ Day
Trans.: ©1999 Janet Gillespie
Stell auf den Tisch die duftenden
Reseden,
Die letzten roten Astern trag herbei,
Und laß uns wieder von der Liebe
reden,
Wie einst im Mai.
Set the fragrant mignonettes on the
table,
bring the last red asters over here,
and let us speak of love again,
Gib mir die Hand, daß ich sie heimlich drücke
Und wenn man’s sieht, mir ist es
einerlei,
Gib mir nur einen deiner süßen Blicke,
Wie einst im Mai.
Give me your hand, so that I can
squeeze it in secret,
and if people see, I don’t care;
give me just one of your sweet glances,
as once in May.
Es blüht und duftet heut auf jedem
Grabe,
Ein Tag im Jahr ist ja den Toten frei,
Komm an mein Herz, daß ich dich
wieder habe,
Wie einst im Mai.
Today flowers bloom and smell
sweet on every grave,
one day of the year the dead are free,
come to my heart, so that I will have
you again,
as once in May.
as once in May.
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Cäcilie
Text: Heinrich Hart
Cecily
Trans.: ©1976 George Bird and
Richard Stokes
Wenn du es wüßtest,
Was träumen heißt von brennenden
Küssen,
Von Wandern und Ruhen mit der
Geliebten,
Aug in Auge,
Und kosend und plaudernd,
Wenn du es wüßtest,
Du neigtest dein Herz!
If you knew
what it is to dream of burning kisses,
Wenn du es wüßtest,
Was bangen heißt in einsamen
Nächten,
Umschauert vom Sturm, da niemand
tröstet
Milden Mundes die kampfmüde
Seele,
Wenn du es wüßtest,
Du kämest zu mir.
Wenn du es wüßtest,
Was leben heißt, umhaucht von der
Gottheit
Weltschaffendem Atem,
Zu schweben empor, lichtgetragen,
Zu seligen Höhn,
Wenn du es wüßtest,
Du lebtest mit mir!
of wandering and resting with one’s
love,
gazing at each other,
and caressing and talking,
if you knew,
you would incline your heart!
If you knew
what fear is on lonely nights,
as the storm rages, when no one
comforts
with soft voice the struggle-weary
soul,
if you knew,
you would come to me.
If you knew
what it is to live enveloped in God’s
world-creating breath,
to float upwards, borne on light,
to blissful heights,
if you knew,
you would live with me!
Musicologist Thomas Denny, Professor Emeritus at Skidmore College, has
published and lectured extensively on the music of Franz Schubert, as well
as 18th and 19th-century operatic topics.
—Copyright © 2016 by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.
MARCIA ROSENGARD
Meet the Artists
Great Performers I Meet the Artists
Karita Mattila
One of today’s most exciting lyric dramatic sopranos, Karita Mattila is recognized as much for the beauty and versatility of her voice as for her
extraordinary stage ability. A native of Finland, she was trained at the
Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Ms. Mattila sings at all the world’s major
opera houses and festivals, and has performed with conductors including
James Levine, Claudio Abbado, Christoph von Dohnányi, Bernard Haitink,
Simon Rattle, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Ms. Mattila has also collaborated
with major stage directors such as Luc Bondy (Don Carlos), Lev Dodin
(Elektra), Peter Stein (Simon Boccanegra and Don Giovanni), and Jürgen
Flimm (Fidelio). She is an influential artistic force in the development of
new music, regularly collaborating with contemporary composers in the
debut performances of significant modern works. These include the
world premiere of Emilie by Kaija Saariaho at the Opéra National de Lyon.
She has won numerous awards throughout her distinguished career,
including Musical America’s Musician of the Year and Opera News
Awards, and France’s Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.
Ms. Mattila has many recordings on the Phillips, EMI, Sony, Deutsche
Grammophon, and Ondine labels. Her 40th birthday concert, in front of
nearly 12,000 people in Helsinki, was released on CD by Ondine. Other
recordings include Strauss’s Vier letzte lieder with Claudio Abbado
(Deutsche Grammophon); German Romantic arias by Beethoven,
Mendelssohn, and Weber with Colin Davis, and Grieg and Sibelius songs
with Sakari Oramo (all on Erato/Warner); and complete recordings of Die
Meistersinger von Nürnberg with Georg Solti (Decca), which won a
Grammy Award in 1998.
Highlights of the current season include Ms. Mattila’s first Kostelnička in
Jenu° fa with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Jiří Bělohlávek in
Prague and London. She returns to the Royal Opera House–Covent
Garden for the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos, which she recently sang at
Great Performers I Meet the Artists
the Paris Opera. In concert Ms. Mattila appears in Helsinki, Oslo, Bergen, and
St. Louis, and in recital she performs in New York and Madrid.
Martin Katz
Martin Katz has been in demand by the
world’s most celebrated vocal soloists for
more than four decades. In addition to
Karita Mattila, he has appeared and
recorded regularly with Marilyn Horne,
Frederica von Stade, Samuel Ramey, David
Daniels, José Carreras, Kiri Te Kanawa,
Kathleen Battle, among many others.
A native of Los Angeles, Mr. Katz’s piano
studies began at the age of five. He
attended the University of Southern
California and studied accompanying with
Gwendolyn Koldofsky. Conducting now also plays a significant role in his
career. He has partnered with several of his solo collaborators on the podium,
and has conducted several staged productions for the University of Michigan
Opera Theatre, Music Academy of the West, and San Francisco Opera’s prestigious Merola program.
Mr. Katz is also deeply committed to teaching. Since 1984, he has led the
University of Michigan’s program in collaborative piano, and played an active
part in opera productions. He has been a pivotal figure in the training of countless young artists, both singers and pianists. Mr. Katz is also the author of a
comprehensive guide to accompanying, The Complete Collaborator, published
by Oxford University Press.
Lincoln Center’s Great Performers
Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Lincoln Center’s Great Performers offers classical and contemporary music performances from the world’s outstanding
symphony orchestras, vocalists, chamber ensembles, and recitalists. Since its
initiation in 1965, the series has expanded to include significant emerging
artists and premieres of groundbreaking productions, with offerings from
October through June in Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, Alice Tully Hall,
and other performance spaces around New York City. Along with lieder
recitals, Sunday morning coffee concerts, and films, Great Performers offers
a rich spectrum of programming throughout the season.
Great Performers
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) serves three primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, national leader in arts and education and community relations, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. A presenter of
more than 3,000 free and ticketed events, performances, tours, and educational
activities annually, LCPA offers 15 programs, series, and festivals including
American Songbook, Great Performers, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center
Out of Doors, Midsummer Night Swing, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and the
White Light Festival, as well as the Emmy Award–winning Live From Lincoln
Center, which airs nationally on PBS. As manager of the Lincoln Center campus,
LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center complex and the 11
resident organizations. In addition, LCPA led a $1.2 billion campus renovation,
completed in October 2012.
Lincoln Center Programming Department
Jane Moss, Ehrenkranz Artistic Director
Hanako Yamaguchi, Director, Music Programming
Jon Nakagawa, Director, Contemporary Programming
Jill Sternheimer, Director, Public Programming
Lisa Takemoto, Production Manager
Charles Cermele, Producer, Contemporary Programming
Mauricio Lomelin, Producer, Contemporary Programming
Regina Grande, Associate Producer
Amber Shavers, Associate Producer, Public Programming
Nana Asase, Assistant to the Artistic Director
Luna Shyr, Senior Editor
Olivia Fortunato, House Seat Coordinator
Ms. Mattila’s representation:
Columbia Artists Management
www.cami.com