Susan Graham, Mezzo-Soprano Bradley Moore, Piano Frauenliebe

PHOTO BY DARIO ACOSTA

SUSAN GRAHAM, MEZZO-SOPRANO BRADLEY MOORE, PIANO FRAUENLIEBE UND -LEBEN: VARIATIONS Saturday, February 2, 2019, at 7:30pm Foellinger Great Hall PROGRAM SUSAN GRAHAM, MEZZO-SOPRANO BRADLEY MOORE, PIANO FRAUENLIEBE UND -LEBEN: VARIATIONS I. Robert Schumann Frauenliebe und -leben No. 1, ”Seit ich ihn gesehen” (1810-1856)

Edvard Grieg Haugtussa, Op. 67, No. 4, ”Møte” (1843-1907)

Richard Strauss Meines Schaute, Op. 17, No. 1, ”Seit Dem Dein Aug’” (1864-1949)

II. Robert Schumann Frauenliebe und -leben No. 2, ”Er, der Herrlichste von Allen” (1810-1856)

Sir John Dankworth Sonnet No. 18, ”Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” (1927-2010)

Gabriel Fauré Second Recueil, Op. 27, No. 2, ”Chanson d’amour” (1845-1924)

Ture Rangstrôm Fem dikter, ”Melodi” (1884-1947)

Ned Rorem O You Whom I Often and Silently Come (b. 1923)

III. Robert Schumann Frauenliebe und -leben No. 3, ”Ich kann’s nicht Fassen, nicht (1810-1856) glauben”

Edvard Grieg Hjertets Melodier, Op. 5, No. 3, ”Jeg elsker dig” (1843-1907)

Gabriel Fauré Op. 8, No. 1, ”Au bord de l’eau” (1845-1924)

2 IV. Robert Schumann Frauenliebe und -leben No. 4, ”Du Ring an meinem Finger” (1810-1856)

Gustav Mahler Des Knaben Wunderhorn, ”Rheinlegendchen” (1860-1911)

Joaquín Turina Poema en forma de canciones, Op. 18, No. 4, ”Los dos miedos” (1882-1949)

V. Robert Schumann Frauenliebe und -leben No. 5, ”Helft mir, ihr Schwestern” (1810-1856) Myrten, Op. 25, ”Mutter, Mutter! Glaube nicht! Lied der Brait I,” ”Lass mich ihm am Busen hangen, Lied der Braut II”

Maurice Ravel Cinq melodies populaires grecques, ”Tout Gai!” (1875-1937)

20-minute intermission

VI. Henri Duparc Phidylé (1848-1933)

Claude Debussy Les Chansons de Bilitis, No. 2, L. 97, ”La chevelure” (1862-1918)

Robert Schumann Frauenliebe und -leben No. 6, ”Süsser Freund, du blickest mich (1810-1856) verwundert an”

3 VII. Francis Poulenc La courte paille, FP 178, No. 6, ”Le Carafon” (1899-1963)

Pyotr Tchaikovsky Op. 16, No. 1, ”Lullaby” (1840-1893)

Richard Strauss Acht Lieder, Op. 49, No. 3, ”Wiegenliedchen” (1863-1920)

Robert Schumann Frauenliebe und -leben No. 7, ”An meinem Herzen, an meiner Brust” (1810-1856)

VIII. Hector Berlioz Les nuits d’été, Op. 7, No. 4, ”Absence” (1803-1869)

Enrique Granados Campiña Tonadillas en un estilo antiguo, H. 136, ”La maja dolorosa (1867-1916) (¡Oh muerte cruel!)”

Roger Quilter Four Shakespeare Songs, Op. 30, No. 3, ”How should I your true (1877-1953) love know?”

Robert Schumann Frauenliebe und -leben No. 8, ”Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz (1810-1856) getan”

Susan Graham appears by arrangement with: IMG Artists Pleiades House 7 West 54th Street New York, New York 10019 212. 994.3510

Susan Graham can be heard on BMG, Erato, Sony, Decca, Philips, EMI, and the Warner Classics family of labels.

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6 TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS I. Seit ich ihn esehen Since I Saw Him Frauenliebe und -leben No. 1 Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Text by Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838)

Seit ich ihn gesehen, Since I saw him, Glaub ich blind zu sein; I think I am blind; Wo ich hin nur blicke, Every place I look, Seh’ ich ihn allein; I see him alone;

Wie im wachen Traume As in a waking dream Schwebt sein Bild mir vor, His image appears before me, Taucht aus tiefstem Dunkel Rising out of darkest depths Heller nur empor. Only more brightly.

Sonst ist licht- und farblos Everything else is dark and colorless Alles um mich her, All around me, Nach der Schwestern Spiele For my sisters’ games Nicht begehr ich mehr, I am no longer eager,

Möchte lieber weinen, I would like instead to weep Still im Kämmerlein; quietly in my little room; Seit ich ihn gesehen, Since I saw him, Glaub ich blind zu sein. I think I am blind.

Møte The Encounter From Haugtussa, Op. 67, No. 4 Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) Text by Arne Garborg (1851-1924)

Ho sìt ein Sundag lengtande Li; One Sunday she sits quietly on the hill, det strøymer på med desse søte Tankar; While pleasant thoughts rush over her, og Hjarta fullt og tungt i Barmen bankar, And her heart beats fully and heavily in her chest, og Draumen vaknar, bivrande og blid. And a shy dream awakens inside her. Då gjeng det som ei Hildring yver Nuten; Suddenly, enchantment arrives on the hilltop. ho raudnar heit;—der kjem den vene Guten. She blushes red; here he comes, the boy she loves. 7 Burt vil ho gøyme seg i Ørska brå, She wants to hide in her embarrassment, men stoggar tryllt og Augo mot han vender; But shyly she raises her eyes to him; dei tek einannan i dei varme Hender Their warm hands reach out for each other, og stend so der og veit seg inkje Råd. And they stand there, neither one knowing what Då bryt ho ut i dette Undringsord: to say. ”men snilde deg daa. . . at du er so stor!” Then she bursts out, exclaiming, ”My, how tall you are!”

Og som det lid ti svale Kveldings Stund, And as the day changes softly into night, alt meir og meir i Lengt dei saman søkjer; They turn to each other full of longing, og brådt um Hals den unge Arm seg krøkjer, Their young arms wind around each other’s necks, og øre skjelv dei saman Munn mot Munn. And trembling mouth meets trembling mouth. Alt svimrar burt. Og der i Kvelden varm Everything falls away, and in the warm night i heite Sæle søv ho i hans Arm. She falls blissfully asleep enfolded in his arms.

Seit Dem Dein Aug’ in Meines Schaute Since Your Eyes First Looked into Mine Op. 17, No. 1 Richard Strauss (1864-1949) Text by Adolf Friedrich von Schack (1815-1894)

Seitdem dein Aug’ in meines schaute, Since your eyes looked into mine, Und Liebe, wie vom Himmel her, and love, as if here from Heaven, Aus ihm auf mich herniedertaute, fell from above onto me like dew, Was böte mir die Erde mehr? what more could the earth give me?

Ihr Bestes hat sie mir gegeben, It has given me its best, Und von des Herzens stillem Glück and from the heart’s quiet happiness, Ward übervoll mein ganzes Leben My whole life was overflowing Durch jenen einen Augenblick. through one glance.

II. Er, der Herrlichste von Allen He, the Most Wonderful of All Frauenliebe und -leben No. 2 Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Text by Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838)

Er, der Herrlichste von allen, He, the most wonderful of all, Wie so milde, wie so gut. So gentle, so good. Holde Lippen, klares Auge, Lovely lips, sparkling eyes, Heller Sinn und fester Mut. Clear mind and firm resolve.

8 So wie dort in blauer Tiefe, As in the blue depths, Hell und herrlich jener Stern, That star, bright and beautiful, Also er an meinem Himmel So is he in my heaven, Hell und herrlich, hehr und fern. Bright and beautiful, majestic, distant.

Wandle, wandle deine Bahnen; Wander, wander your ways; Nur betrachten deinen Schein, Just to watch your radiance, Nur in Demut ihn betrachten, Just to watch it in humility, Selig nur und traurig sein. Just to be blissful and sad!

Höre nicht mein stilles Beten, Hear not my silent prayer Deinem Glücke nur geweiht; Your happiness only blessed; Darfst mich niedre Magd nicht kennen, I, lowly maid, must not know, Hoher Stern der Herrlichkeit. Lofty, wonderful star.

Nur die Würdigste von allen Only the most worthy woman of all Darf beglücken deine Wahl May your choice favor Und ich will die Hohe segnen And that exalted one will I bless Viele tausend Mal. Many thousands of times.

Will mich freuen dann und weinen, Then shall I rejoice and cry, Selig, selig bin ich dann, Be blissful, blissful then; Sollte mir das Herz auch brechen, Even if my heart breaks, Brich, o Herz, was liegt daran? Then break, O heart, what does it matter?

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Sonnet No. 18 Sir John Dankworth (1927-2010) Text by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;

9 And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature‘s changing course untrimm’d; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Chanson d’amour Song of Love From the Second Recueil, Op. 27, No. 2 Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) Text by Armand Silvestre (1837-1901)

J’aime tes yeux, j’aime ton front, I love your eyes, I love your face, Ô ma rebelle, ô ma farouche, Oh my rebel, oh my wild one, J’aime tes yeux, j’aime ta bouche I love your eyes, I love your mouth, Où mes baisers s’épuiseront. Where my kisses exhaust themselves.

J’aime ta voix, jaime l’étrange I love your voice, I love the strange Grâce de tout ce que tu dis, Grace in everything that you say, Ô ma rebelle, ô mon cher ange, Oh my rebel, oh my dear angel, Mon enfer et mon paradis! My hell and my paradise!

J’aime tout ce qui te fait belle, I love everything that makes you beautiful, De tes pieds jusqu’à tes cheveux, From your feet to your hair, Ô toi vers qui montent mes vœux, Oh you towards whom my desires climb! Ô ma farouche, ô ma rebelle! Oh my wild one, oh my rebel!

Melodi Melody From Fem dikter Ture Rangstrôm (1884-1947) Text by Bo Bergman (1869-1967)

Bara du går över markerna, You simply walk across the meadows, lever var källa, and every spring becomes alive, sjunger var tuva ditt namn. every blade of grass sings your name. Skyarna brinna och parkerna The clouds burn and the trees susa och fälla whistle and drop their lövet som guld i din famn. leaves like gold on your lap.

10 Och vid de skummiga stränderna By the foamy shores hör jag din stämmas I hear your soothing voice vaggande vågsorl till tröst rocking in a wave's murmur. Räck mig de älskade händerna. Reach out your beloved hands. Mörkret skall skrämmas. Darkness will be scared away. Kvalet skall släppa mitt bröst. Torment will leave my breast.

Bara du går över ängarna, You simply walk across the meadows, bara jag ser dig I see you vandra i fjärran förbi, wandering in the distance, darra de eviga strängarna. those eternal strains tremble. Säg mig vem ger dig Tell me who bestows upon you makten som blir melodi? the power which becomes this melody?

O You Whom I Often and Silently Come Ned Rorem (b. 1923) Text by Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

O you whom I often and silently come where you are that I may be with you, As I walk by your side or sit near, or remain in the same room with you, Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your sake is playing within me.

III. Ich kann’s nicht Fassen, nicht glauben I Cannot Grasp It, Cannot Believe It Frauenliebe und -leben No. 3 Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Text by Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838)

Ich kann’s nicht fassen, nicht glauben, I cannot grasp it, cannot believe it, Es hat ein Traum mich berückt; I am swept away in a dream; Wie hätt’ er doch unter allen How, from everyone, has he Mich Arme erhöht und beglückt? Raised and chosen poor me?

Mir war’s, er habe gesprochen: I thought he said, ”Ich bin auf ewig dein,” ”I am yours forever,” Mir war’s, ich träume noch immer, I thought I was still dreaming, Es kann ja nimmer so sein. For it can never be so.

11 O lass im Traume mich sterben, O let me, dreaming, die, Gewieget an seiner Brust, Cradled on his breast; Den seligen Tod mich schlürfen Blissful death let me savor, In Tränen unendlicher Lust. In tears of endless happiness.

Jeg elsker Dig I Love You From Hjertets Melodier, Op. 5, No. 3 Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) Text by Hans Christian Adersen (1805-1875)

Min Tankes Tanke ene du er vorden, You are the one thought of my thoughts, Du er mit Hjertes første Kærlighed. You are the first love of my heart. Jeg elsker Dig, som Ingen her på Jorden, I love you as I love no one else here on Earth, Jeg elsker Dig i Tid og Evighed! I love you for all time and all eternity!

Au bord de l’eau At the Riverside Op. 8, No. 1 Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) Text by René-François Sully-Prudhomme (1839-1907)

S’asseoir tous deux au bord du flot qui passe, To sit together on the edge of the stream that passes, Le voir passer, To see it passing; Tous deux s’il glisse un nuage en l’espace, Together, when a cloud floats in space, Le voir glisser; To see it float; À l’horizon s’il fume un toit de chaume, When a cottage chimney is smoking on the horizon, Le voir fumer; To see it smoke; Aux alentours si quelque fleur embaume, If nearby a flower spreads its fragrance, S’en embaumer; To take in its scent; Entendre au pied du saule où To hear at the foot of the willow tree, where L’eau murmurer, The water murmurs, Ne pas sentir tant que ce rêve dure Not to sense, while this dream lasts, Le temps durer. The passage of time, Mais n’apportant de passion profonde But to feel deep passion Qu'à s’adorer, Only to adore each other; Sans nul souci des querelles du monde Not to care at all about the world’s quarrels Les ignorer; To ignore them, Et seuls tous deux devant tout ce qui lasse And alone, the two of us, facing all that grows weary, Sans se lasser, Not to grow weary, Sentir l’amour devant tout ce qui passe To experience love while everything passes away, Ne point passer! Never to change! IV. Du Ring an meinem Finger You, Ring on My Finger Frauenliebe und -leben No. 4 Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Text by Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838)

Du Ring an meinem Finger, You, ring on my finger, Mein goldenes Ringelein, My little golden ring, Ich drücke dich fromm an die Lippen, I press you with reverence to my lips, An das Herze mein. To my heart.

Ich hatt’ ihn ausgeträumet, I had finished dreaming Der Kindheit friedlich schönen Traum, Childhood’s calm and beautiful dream, Ich fand allein mich, verloren I found myself alone, lost Im öden unendlichen Raum. In boundless desolation.

Du Ring an meinem Finger, You, ring on my finger, Da hast du mich erst belehrt, You have first taught me, Hast meinem Blick erschlossen Unlocked my eyes Des Lebens unendlichen, tiefen Wert. To life’s deep, unending worth.

Ich will ihm dienen, ihm Leben, I will serve him, live for him, Ihm angehören ganz, Belong wholly to him, Hin selber mich geben und finden Give myself to him and find Verklärt mich in seinem Glanz. Myself transfigured in his glance.

Rheinlegendchen Rhine Legend From Des Knaben Wunderhorn Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) Text by Clemens Brentano (1778-1842)

Bald gras ich am Neckar, Sometimes I mow by the Neckar, Bald gras ich am Rhein; Sometimes I mow by the Rhine. Bald hab ich ein Schätzel, Sometimes I have a sweetheart, Bald bin ich allein! Sometimes I am all alone!

Was hilft mir das Grasen, How does mowing help me Wenn d’Sichel nicht schneid’t! If the sickle will not cut? Was hilft mir ein Schätzel, How does a sweetheart help me Wenn’s bei mir nicht bleibt. If she will not stay with me?

13 So soll ich denn grasen So if I am going to mow Am Neckar, am Rhein, By the Neckar, by the Rhine, So werf ich mein goldenes Then I shall throw in Ringlein hinein. My little golden ring. Es fließt im Neckar It will float down the Neckar, Und fließt im Rhein, Float down the Rhine, Soll schwimmen hinunter And will swim under, down Ins Meer tief hinein. Into the depths of the ocean.

Und schwimmt es, das Ringlein, And if the ring swims, So frißt es ein Fisch! A fish shall eat it! Das Fischlein soll kommen The little fish will end up Auf‘s Königs sein’ Tisch! On the table of a king! Der König tät fragen, The king will ask, Wem’s Ringlein sollt sein? Whose ring is this? Da tät mein Schatz sagen: And then my sweetheart will say, Das Ringlein g’hört mein. The ring belongs to me.

Mein Schätzel tät springen My sweetheart will run Bergauf und bergein, Up and down the hillside Tät mir wiedrum bringen And will bring back Das Goldringlein mein! My little golden ring! Kannst grasen am Neckar, You can mow by the Neckar, Kannst grasen am Rhein, You can mow by the Rhine, Wirf du mir nur immer Just be sure that you always Dein Ringlein hinein! Throw in your ring for me!

Los dos miedos The Two Fears From Poema en forma de canciones, Op. 18, No. 4 Joaquín Turina (1882-1949) Text by de Campoamor y Campoosorio (1817-1901)

Al comenzar la noche de aquel día At dusk on that day, Ella lejos de mí, Far from me she said: ¿Por qué te acercas tanto? Me decía, ”Why do you come so close to me? Tengo miedo de ti. I am afraid of you.”

Y después que la noche hubo pasado And after the night ended, Dijo, cerca de mí: Close to me she said: ¿Por qué te alejas tanto de mi lado? ”Why do you move so far from me? ¡Tengo miedo sin ti! I am afraid without you.” V. Helft mir, ihr Schwestern Help Me, Sisters Frauenliebe und -leben No. 5 Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Text by Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838)

Helft mir, ihr Schwestern, Help me, sisters, Freundlich mich schmücken, In kindness to dress myself, Dient der Glücklichen heute, mir. Serve me, the happy one, today, Windet geschäftig Eagerly weave Mir um die Stirne About my brow Noch der blühenden Myrte Zier. The blooming myrtle.

Als ich befriedigt, When I, content, Freudigen Herzens, With a happy heart, Sonst dem Geliebten im Arme lag, Lie in my beloved’s arms, Immer noch rief er, Still would he call Sehnsucht im Herzen, With a yearning heart, Ungeduldig den heutigen Tag. Impatiently for today.

Helft mir, ihr Schwestern, Help me, sisters, Helft mir verscheuchen Help me disperse Eine törichte Bangigkeit; Unfounded fears; Dass ich mit klarem So that I, clear Aug ihn empfange, Eyed, may receive him, Ihn, die Quelle der Freudigkeit. The source of my joy.

Bist, mein Geliebter, You, my beloved, Du mir erschienen, Have appeared before me, Gibst du mir, Sonne, deinen Schein? Will you, sun, shine upon me? Lass mich in Andacht, Let me in reverence, Lass mich in Demut, Let me in humility, Lass mich verneigen dem Herren mein. Let me bow to my lord.

Streuet ihm, Schwestern, Scatter flowers, sisters, Streuet ihm Blumen, Scatter flowers for him, Bringt ihm knospende Rosen dar. Offer budding roses. Aber euch, Schwestern, But you, sisters, Grüss ich mit Wehmut, I greet sadly, Freudig scheidend aus eurer Schar. Departing, joyous, from your throng.

15 Mutter, Mutter! Glaube nicht! Mother, Mother, Do Not Believe Lied der Braut I Bride’s Song I From Myrten, Op. 25 Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Text by Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866)

Mutter, Mutter! glaube nicht, Mother, mother, do not believe Weil ich ihn lieb’ also sehr, That because I love him so much Daß nun Liebe mir gebricht, I cannot love you Dich zu lieben wie vorher. as I have in the past.

Mutter, Mutter! seit ich ihn Mother, mother, since I love him Liebe, lieb’ ich erst dich sehr. I now for the first time love you. Laß mich an mein Herz dich zieh’n Let me draw you to my heart Und dich küssen, wie mich er. And kiss you as he kisses me!

Mutter, Mutter! seit ich ihn Mother, mother! Since I love him Liebe, lieb’ ich erst dich ganz, I finally love you completely Daß du mir das Sein verlieh’n, For giving me this life Das mir ward zu solchem Glanz. That has become so joyous for me.

Laß mich ihm am Busen hangen Let Me Cling to His Chest Lied der Braut II Bride’s Song II From Myrten Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Text by Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866)

Laß mich ihm am Busen hangen, Let me cling to his chest, Mutter, Mutter! laß das Bangen. Mother, Mother! Do not worry. Frage nicht: wie soll sich’s wenden? Don't ask: how should it change? Frage nicht: wie soll das enden? Don't ask: how should it end? Enden? Enden soll sich’s nie, End? It should never end, Wenden, noch nicht weiß ich, wie! Change, I still don't know how!

16 Tout gai! Everyone Is Happy! From Cinq melodies populaires grecques Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) Text by Michael Dimitri Calvocoressi (1877-1944) Everyone is happy, happy! Tout gai! gai, ha, tout gai! Beautiful legs, which dance, Belle jambe, tireli, qui danse; Beautiful legs; even the dishes are dancing! Belle jambe, la vaisselle danse, Tra la la, la la la! Tra la la la la... . .

20-minute intermission

VI. Phidylé Phidylé Henri Duparc (1848-1933) Text by Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle (1818-1894)

L’herbe est molle au sommeil sous les frais The grass is bending with sleep under the fresh peupliers, poplars, Aux pentes des sources moussues On the slopes of the mossy springs Qui dans les prés en fleurs germant par mille That in the blooming fields, sprouting abundantly, issues, Se perdent sous les noïrs halliers. Disappear through the black thickets,

Repose ô Phidylé, Rest, oh Phidylé.

Midi sur les feuillages Noon on the branches shines Rayonne, et t’invite au sommeil. And invites you to sleep. Par le trèfle et le thym, seules en plein soleil, By the clover and the thyme, alone in bright sunlight, Chantent les abeilles volages; The buzzing bees sing;

Un chaud parfum circule au détour des sentiers, A warm fragrance circles by the path’s bend, La rouge fleur des blés s’incline, The red flowers of the wheat bows, Et les oiseaux, rasant de l’aile la colline, And birds, skimming the hill, Cherchent l’ombre des églantiers. Seek the shade of the wild roses.

Repose ô Phidylé, Rest, oh Phidylé,

17 Mais quand l’astre incliné sur sa courbe éclatante, But, when the sun, bending in its dazzling curve, Verra ses ardeurs s’apaiser, Will see its blaze calmed, Que ton plus beau sourire et ton meillure baiser Then your most beautiful smile and your best kisses Me récompensent, me récompensent de Will reward me, reward me for having waited. l’attente.

La chevelure The Hair From Les Chansons de Bilitis, No. 2, L. 97 Claude Debussy (1862-1918) Text by Pierre Louÿs (1870-1925)

Il m’a dit: He told me: Cette nuit, j’ai rêvé. ”Last night I had a dream. ”J’avais ta chevelure autour de mon cou. Your hair was around my neck. J’avais tes cheveux comme un colier noir Your hair was like a black collar autour de ma nuque et sur ma poitrine. around my neck and upon my chest.

Je les caressais, et c’étaient les miens; I caressed it and it was mine; et nous étions liés pour toujours ainsi, and we were bound together forever like this, par la même chevelure la bouche sur la bouche, By the same hair, mouth on mouth, ainsi que deux lauriers n’ont souvent qu’une like two laurels that often have one root. racine.

Et peu à peu, il m’a semblé, tant nos membres Little by little, so intertwined were our limbs, it étaient confondus, que je devenais toi-même seemed to me that I was becoming you, ou que tu entrais en moi comme mon songe.” or that you were entering into me like my dream.”

Quand il eu achevé, When he had finished, il mit doucement ses mains sur mes épaules, he gently placed his hands on my shoulders, et il me regarda d’un regard si tendre, and he looked at me with a look so tender que je baissai les yeux avec un frisson. that I lowered my eyes with a shiver.

18 Süsser Freund, du blickest mich verwundert an Sweet Friend, You Look at Me in Wonder Frauenliebe und -leben No. 6 Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Text by Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838)

Süsser Freund, du blickest mich verwundert an, Sweet friend, you look at me in wonder, Kannst es nicht begreifen, You cannot understand Wie ich weinen kann; How I can weep; Lass der feuchten Perlen These moist pearls let, Ungewohnte Zier As a strange decoration, Freudig hell erzittern Tremble joyous bright In dem Auge mir. In my eyes.

Wie so bang mein Busen, How anxious my heart, Wie so wonnevoll! How full of joy! Wüsst ich nur mit Worten, If I only knew the words Wie ich’s sagen soll; To say it as I should; Komm und birg dein Antlitz Come, hide your face, Hier an meiner Brust, Here, against my breast, Will ins Ohr dir flüstern For me to whisper you Alle meine Lust. My full joy.

Weisst du nun die Tränen, Now you know the tears Die ich weinen kann, That I can weep, Sollst du nicht sie sehen, Should you not see them, Du geliebter Mann? Beloved man? Bleib an meinem Herzen, Stay against my heart, Fühle dessen Schlag, Feel its beating, Dass ich fest und fester That I may press you Nur dich drücken mag. Ever closer.

Hier an meinem Bette Here by my bed Hat die Wiege Raum, Is the cradle’s place, Wo sie still verberge Where, it silently hides Meinen holden Traum; My sweet dream. Kommen wird der Morgen, The morning will come Wo der Traum erwacht; When that dream will awake, Und daraus dein Bildnis And your image mir entgegen lacht. Will laugh up at me.

19 VII. Le Carafon The Baby Carafe from La courte paille, FP 178, No. 6 Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) Text by Maurice Carême (1899-1978)

”Pourquoi”, se plaignait la carafe, ”Why,” complained the carafe, ”N’aurais-je pas un carafon? ”Can’t I have a baby carafe? Au zoo, madame la Girafe At the zoo, doesn’t Mrs. Giraffe N’a-t-elle pas un girafon?” Have a baby giraffe?” Un sorcier qui passait par là, A wizard who was passing by, À cheval sur un phonographe, Riding on a phonograph, Enregistra la belle voix Recorded the lovely voice De soprano de la carafe, Of the soprano carafe, Et la fit entendre à Merlin. And played it for Merlin to hear. ”Fort bien,” dit celui-ci, ”fort bien!” ”Most fine,” said he, ”most fine!” II frappa trois fois dans les mains, He clapped his hands three times, Et la dame de la maison And the lady of the house Se demande encore pourquoi Still wonders why Elle trouva, ce matin-là, She found, that very morning, Un joli petit carafon A pretty baby carafe Blotti tout contre la carafe, Snuggling close to the carafe, Ainsi qu’au zoo, le girafon Just as at the zoo the baby giraffe Pose son cou fragile et long Lays his long and fragile neck Sur le flanc clair de la girafe. Against the pale flank of the giraffe.

Lullaby Lullaby Op. 16, No. 1 Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Text by Apollon Nikolayevich Maykov (1821-1897)

Spi, ditja mojo, spi, usni! Sleep, my baby, sleep, go to sleep! Sladkij son k sebe mani: Bring sweet dreams to yourself: V njan’ki ja tebe vzjala I’ve hired as nannies for you Veter, solnce i orla. The Wind, the Sun, and the Eagle.

Uletel orjol domoj; The Eagle has flown back home, Solnce skrylos’ pod vodoj: The Sun has hidden under the oceans, Veter, posle trekh nochej, And three nights later Mchitsja k materi svojej. The Wind is rushing back to her mother.

20 Vetra sprashivajet mat’: The Wind’s mother has been asking: ”Gde izvolil propadat’? ”Where have you been all this time? Ali zvezdy vojeval? Have you been fighting with the stars? Ali volny vsjo gonjal.” Have you been chasing after the waves?”

”Ne gonjal ja voln morskikh, ”I haven’t been chasing the waves, Zvezd ne trogal zolotykh; I haven’t been fighting the golden stars, Ja ditja oberegal, I have been guarding a baby Kolybelochku kachal!” And rocking him gently in his little cradle.”

Spi, ditja mojo, spi, usni! spi, usni! Sleep, my baby, sleep, go to sleep, sleep, go to sleep! Sladkij son k sebe mani: Bring sweet dreams to yourself: V njan’ki ja tebe vzjala I’ve hired as nannies for you Veter, solnce i orla. The Wind, the Sun, and the Eagle.

Wiegenliedchen Cradle Song From Acht Lieder, Op. 49, No. 3 Richard Strauss (1864-1949) Text by Richard Dehmel (1863-1920)

Bienchen, Bienchen, Little bee, little bee, Wiegt sich im Sonnenschein, Swaying in the sunshine, Spielt um mein Kindelein, Playing around my little child, Summt dich in Schlummer ein, Humming to sleep, Süßes Gesicht. Sweet face.

Spinnchen, Spinnchen, Little spider, little spider, Flimmert im Sonnenschein, Shimmering in the sunshine, Schlummre, mein Kindelein, Slumber, my little child, Spinnt dich in Träume ein, Spin yourself in dreams, Rühre dich nicht! Don’t disturb yourself.

Tief-Edelinchen Rich little fellow, Schlüpft aus dem Sonnenschein Slip out of the sunshine Träume, mein Kindelein, Dream, my little child, Haucht dir ein Seelchen ein: Breathe into yourself a little soul: Liebe zum Licht. Love of the light.

21 An meinem Herzen, an meiner Brust On My Heart, on My Breast Frauenliebe und -leben No. 7 Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Text by Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838)

An meinem Herzen, an meiner Brust, On my heart, on my breast, Du meine Wonne, du meine Lust. You my delight, you my joy! Das Glück ist die Liebe, Happiness is love, Die Lieb ist das Glück, Love is happiness, Ich hab’s gesagt und nehm’s nicht zurück. I have said it and will not take it back.

Hab überschwenglich mich geschätzt, I thought myself rapturous, Bin überglücklich aber jetzt. But now I am delirious with joy. Nur die da säugt, nur die da liebt Only she who suckles, only she who loves Das Kind, dem sie die Nahrung gibt; The child she nourishes;

Nur eine Mutter weiss allein, Only a mother knows Was lieben heisst und glücklich sein. What it means to love and be happy. O wie bedaur’ ich doch den Mann, Oh, how I pity the man Der Mutterglück nicht fühlen kann. Who cannot feel a mother’s happiness.

Du lieber, lieber Engel du, You dear, dear angel, Du schaust mich an und lächelst dazu. You look at me and smile. An meinem Herzen, an meiner Brust, On my heart, on my breast, Du meine Wonne, du meine Lust. You my delight, you my joy!

VIII. Absence Absence From Les nuits d’été, Op. 7, No. 4 Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) Text by Théophile Gautier (1811-1872)

Reviens, reviens, ma bien-aimée; Come back, return, my well-beloved! Comme une fleur loin du soleil, Like a flower far from the sun, La fleur de ma vie est fermée The flower of my life is closed Loin de ton sourire vermeil! Far from your smiling ruby lips!

Entre nos coeurs qu’elle distance! Between our hearts, what distance! Tant d’espace entre nos baisers! What space between our kisses! O sort amer! ô dure absence! O bitter fate! o harsh absence! O grands désirs inapaisés. O great desires unappeased!

22 D’ici là-bas que de campagnes, From here to there, how much land there is! Que de villes et de hameaux, How very many villages and hamlets, Que de vallons et de montagnes, How very many valleys and mountains, A lasser le pied des chevaux! To tire the hooves of the horses!

La maja dolorosa (¡Oh muerte cruel!) The Lady of Sorrows (Oh, Cruel Death!) From Tonadillas en un estilo antiguo, H. 136 Enrique Granados Campiña (1867-1916) Text by Fernando Periquet y Zuaznabar (1873-1940)

¡Oh muerte cruel! Oh, cruel death! ¿Por qué tú, a traición, Why have you so traitorously mi majo arrebataste a mi pasión? stolen my beloved? ¡No quiero vivir sin él, I cannot bear to live without him, porque es morir, porque es morir for life as such is nothing more así vivir! than death.

No es posible ya It is not possible sentir más dolor: to feel a greater pain: en lágrimas desecha ya mi alma está. my soul is drowning in my tears. ¡Oh Dios, torna mi amor, Oh, God! Return my beloved to me, porque es morir, porque es morir for life as such is nothing more así vivir! than death.

How should I your true love know From Four Shakespeare Songs, Op. 30, No. 3 Roger Quilter (1877-1953) Text from Hamlet by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

How should I your true love know From another one? By his cockle hat and staff, And his sandal shoon.

He is dead and gone, lady,

23 He is dead and gone; At his head a grass green turf, At his heels a stone.

White his shroud as the mountain snow, Larded with sweet flowers; Which bewept to the grave did go With true-love showers And will he not come again? And will he not come again? No, no, he is dead: Go to thy deathbed. He never, never will come again, He never will come again.

His beard was as white as snow, All flaxen was his poll; He is gone, And we cast away moan: God ha’ mercy on his soul.

Nun hast du mir Now Have You Caused Me My First Pain den ersten Schmerz getan Frauenliebe und -leben No. 8 Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Text by Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838)

Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz getan, Now have you caused me my first pain, Der aber traf, Which has struck me hard. Du schläfst, du harter, unbarmherz’ger Mann, You, harsh, pitiless man are sleeping Den Todesschlaf. The sleep of death.

Es blicket die Verlassne vor sich hin, The deserted one stares ahead, Die Welt ist leer. The world is void. Geliebet hab ich und gelebt, Loved have I and lived, Ich bin nicht Lebend mehr. I am living no longer.

Ich zieh mich in mein Innres still zurück, Quietly I withdraw into myself, Der Schleier fällt; The veil falls; Da hab ich dich und mein verlornes Glück, There I have you and my lost happiness, Du meine Welt You, my world.

24 PROGRAM NOTES Prelude narrator; Chamisso was hailed in his time as a Songs are bite-sized commentaries on and champion of women. While listeners will make up reflections of human existence. Whatever their their own minds, it is undeniable that Schumann purely musical attributes (and their greatness, saw in these words the occasion for great musical or not, dependent upon the composer’s beauty. We hear a portrait in tones of a loving, compositional profundity), they participate tender, generous-hearted creature anyone would in the ”big things” of life: birth, death, love, be proud to love and to be loved by. hate, isolation, friendship, time, and more. Schumann knew this. In the year of his battle I. Seit ich ihn gesehen: Love comes in at the for Clara Wieck’s hand in marriage, he clearly eye thought long and hard about the vicissitudes of ”And love comes in at the eye,” wrote William love and translated those thoughts into songs Butler Yeats. In this first group of three songs, written for her. Among them was Frauenliebe lovers look at the beloved and are helpless to und -leben, a tale of married love at its loveliest, resist such beauty. In the ”Amen” chords at the from its beginnings in humble abnegation start of Schumann’s “Seit ich ihn gesehen,” we through fulfillment to the inevitable ending in hear the nameless woman’s reverence for the one partner’s death. Other composers in other man she loves, but believes is beyond her reach; countries have also sung of love, courtship, hence, the slight tinge of darkness and sadness in marriage, birth, and grief; what tonight’s artists this music. Schumann had a passion for Bach, and have done is to compile small anthologies of he channels Baroque tradition in this sarabande diverse songs on the rites of passage given us at song. (The sarabande was a Baroque dance in each stage of Schumann’s cycle. triple meter with the second and third beats often tied, usually grave in nature.) ”Man’s love is of man’s life a thing apart, ’tis woman’s whole existence,” said Byron in Don Love not yet admitted, much less acknowledged, Juan. The poetic cycle of Frauenliebe und -leben in Schumann’s first song is taken several steps by the French aristocrat Louis Charles Adeläide farther in “Møte” from Edvard Grieg’s famous de Chamisso de Boncourt, or Adelbert von Haugtussa cycle. In the first half of Arne Garborg’s Chamisso—his family fled the French Revolution poetic cycle, the clairvoyant heroine Veslemøy, for Prussia when he was nine—might seem at first called Haugtussa or ”hill sprite” for her ability to glance in accord with that peculiarly masculine commune with nature, falls in love with the ”wild view of women. According to some, the female boy” Jon. As she dreams of him on a hilltop, he poetic voice in this cycle is actually male, and appears, and she gazes at him entranced before the work is meant to teach women how the they fall into one another’s arms. Her desire paterfamilias of the day wished to be worshipped for him at the start, the music saturated with by his wife. According to others (present company chromatic motion in the inner voices (a traditional included), the poems are actually in sympathy trope for desire), is consummated at the end in with the emerging women’s movement, because their first tryst. We hear climax and the ”dying- it is the woman, not the husband, who is the away” aftermath of lovemaking at the end.

25 ”Since your eyes gazed in mine . . . what more and Fauré aids and abets all this repetition for could I ask of life?” asks the lover in Richard emphasis by repeating the first stanza twice more Strauss’s Seitdem dein Aug’ in meines schaute. in the course of his setting. Strauss begins without a piano introduction, the directness very moving, and singles out the Ture Rangström is one of the foremost early 20th- word at the heart of it all—Liebe (love)—by a century Swedish composers of romans (art songs), vault upwards for the singer, underscored by some 250 of them. “Melodi” is a setting of a love the first tonic chord of the song. The throbbing poem by Bo Bergman; here, love brings nature to syncopated patterns, the crescendo of rising more intense life and banishes suffering. Nature’s passion that builds throughout, and the rhythmic sparkling voices ripple in the piano throughout elongation of ganzes leben (my whole life) are all the song, accompanying a beautiful melody; the transformations of passion into song. words tell us that love itself is song and that it is all-powerful. II. Er, der Herrlichste von allen: In praise of the beloved III. Ich kann’s nicht fassen, nicht glauben: In the second song of Frauenliebe, the woman Avowals of lasting love in love catalogues her beloved’s wonderful Somewhere between the second and third songs attributes—his lips, eyes, mind, and courage— in Schumann’s Frauenliebe, the beloved man has and then resolves to rejoice in her beloved’s declared his love for her, and she is overwhelmed. fantasied marriage to someone else as long We hear her come to the realization that this as he is happy. Trying to do the right thing, wonder is true in the course of this song, with she nonetheless finds it incredibly painful and its shifting moods and changing tempi; the weeps in private. Schumann was prone to invent astonishment at the start is succeeded by the wordless extensions of poetic meaning in his somewhat slower, thoughtful repetition of his piano postludes, and this one is exquisite. In words. ”I can hardly grasp it, hardly believe it,” the contrapuntal strands that drift downwards she repeats over and over. The final statement is from the high treble register, we hear the wistful preceded by a remarkable little piano interlude, dissolution of her dream of love. rocking back and forth between different levels as if to say ”He loves me, he loves me not,” The persona of Shakespeare’s 18th sonnet, ”Shall before at last accepting that love is hers. I compare thee to a summer’s day?,” declares that as long as this poem shall exist, his beloved In Grieg’s “Jeg elsker dig,” to words by Hans will live, defying time and death. Shakespeare Christian Andersen, a lover swears to love only and jazz—one might not expect the combination, the beloved through all eternity. The song was but the great British jazzman John Dankworth composed for the composer’s cousin Nina composed a wonderfully evocative setting of this Hagerup in the year of their engagement. Each sonnet for his wife, the jazz and pop singer Cleo of the two stanzas culminates in a threefold Laine. proclamation of love that rises ecstatically by stages. Somehow it seems appropriate that the “Chanson d’amour” is in madrigal style, with its song is in C major (representing the ultimate accompaniment that suggests the strumming clarity and purity of love), but is shot through of a lute or guitar and its time-traveling aura of with chromatic color and feeling as in the lovely an older era. ”I love, I love, I love each individual introduction. thing about you,” this ardent lover proclaims, In “Au bord de l’eau,” another poet also declares by the Seville-born Joaquín Turina who merged that his love will endure for eternity, but Fauré’s sevillanismo with French influences. (He studied music, like time itself, flows ever onward in calm with Vincent d’Indy at the Paris Conservatory.) contemplation of all those things that will pass— The third song, “Los dos miedos,” expresses including this love. ”My dear, old au bord de fear of the beloved before the night of love and l’eau,” Henri Duparc wrote to Fauré in 1883, so fear of being without him after they have been consummately expressive of Fauré’s art is this together. song. V. Helft mir, ihr Schwestern: Weddings, IV. Du Ring an meinem Finger: Lovers’ rings families, and communal rejoicing and wedding nights Returning to Frauenliebe, the woman now sings ”To love him, serve him, belong wholly to him,” a song of rejoicing as her sisters help her with Frauenliebe’s nameless woman sings passionately. her bridal dress; in their company and on this In mid-song she contemplates her wedding ring. occasion, she can safely confess her desire for her This was the accepted model for matrimonial love beloved and his for her. Near the close, there is a at the time, and the strong-minded Clara Wieck— momentary touch of melancholy as she bids her no pushover, she—says such things in her letters siblings farewell, but happiness resumes its sway to Robert. This fourth song is the mirror of the as she goes to her husband. The wedding march second, the two sharing the same key, some of we hear at the end owes a debt of gratitude to the same harmonies, and the ”heartbeat” chords Felix Mendelssohn’s music for A Midsummer in the right hand (in the interior of this song). Night’s Dream.

Another ring figures prominently in Gustav Schumann fashioned his song cycle Myrthen, Mahler’s “Rheinlegendchen,” one of his songs not after the model of its Beethovenian or on folk poems from the famous, early 19th- Schubertian predecessors, but according to century anthology Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The his own unique design with 26 songs that Youth’s Magic Horn). A lover separated from constitute an alphabet of love. In the Lied der his beloved fantasizes throwing his ring into the Braut I (Mutter, Mutter, glaube nicht), a bride Rhine where a fish will swallow it, and the King, reassures her mother, ”I shan’t love you any less when served that very same fish, will ask whose for marrying the man I love,” and thanks the ring it is. The sweetheart at court, recognizing woman who bore her for an existence that has it, will immediately return to her faithful lover; now become something splendid. Schumann the eternity symbol of the ring brings together made a habit of extending the poem wordlessly true lovers who have been parted. In this song, in his postlude, and this one ends with a beautiful we hear the typically Mahlerian ironic disjunction adagio variation on ”such splendor.” The between the naiveté of the folk text and the daughter-bride continues to reassure her mother extreme sophistication of the musical setting. in Lied der Braut II (Lass mich ihm am Busen Mahler himself pointed out the originality of its hangen), set to chordal strains as if the wedding harmonization. march were already beginning to sound in the background. Spain’s leading Romantic poet Ramón de Campoamor explored the oxymorons of love in At the start of the 20th century, a French Hellenist his ”Poem in the Form of Songs,” set to music named Hubert Octave Pernot (1870-1946), in

27 company with a Greek colleague named Pericles by a German archaeologist named G. Heim Matsa, collected Greek popular songs. The (geheim, or ”secret”). Louÿs, of course, was the musicologist Pierre Aubry, who was giving a actual author. The text of “La Chevelure” comes lecture on the songs of the oppressed Greeks from the first section entitled ”Bucolics,” about and Armenians, asked another musicologist, Bilitis’ childhood and her first sexual encounter Michel Calvocoressi, to select some of Pernot’s with the youth Lykas. His narrative of seduction, Greek songs as illustrations. Calvocoressi taught quoted within the song, makes Bilitis a figment the singer Louise Thomasset to produce the of his imagination, but she ultimately contains his texts phonetically. When she wanted piano dream within her own recounting. In this intensely accompaniments, he turned to Ravel, who wrote erotic scenario, it is no wonder that we encounter five accompaniments in 36 hours—his first of Wagner’s famous ”Tristan” chord at the moment several forays into folklore. “Tout gai!” is an of imagined—soon to be actual—climax. irresistible invitation to the dance, the text not quite coherent because sung while in full fling, In Schumann’s ”Süsser Freund, du blickest mich,” the singer distracted by the sight of lovely legs the woman tells her bewildered husband, who in joyous activity. Whatever the inimitably French has found her both weeping and smiling, that veil thrown over the proceedings by Ravel, we she is pregnant. This is the only song where he feel as if transported to some sun-washed Greek is present, and Schumann disposes the piano village. part at times as a dialogue between treble and bass registers, between husband and wife. It is VI. Süsser Freund, du blickest mich: in the piano that she whispers her glad tidings Lovemaking and the creation of a child into his ear, the music rising in miniature waves From the Parnassian poet Leconte de Lisle’s of dawning realization, followed by a tender Études latines (Latin Studies), Henri Duparc dialogue between her melody and his cello-like, plucked Phydilé for one of his last and loveliest wordless phrases in the left hand. songs. (Duparc composed only 17 melodies before falling victim to a mysterious neurasthenic VII. An meinem Herzen an meiner Brust: Songs disease that prevented him from composing to the child at all in the final 48 years of his life. As if in The Russian poet Apollon Maikov paraphrased a compensation for such a fate, his songs are Greek folk song, with echoes of Homeric animism, among the greatest in the French language, in a lullaby set to music by Tchaikovsky; here, their subtlety and gravitas beyond the reach a mother invokes mighty forces of nature as of most of his contemporaries.) At the start, guardians to keep her child safe while it sleeps. refined sensuality is evoked by limited motion to The composer dedicated his song to Nikolai neighboring harmonies; from there, ravishment Rimsky-Korsakov’s wife—she was expecting her proceeds apace. By the time the musical persona first child—and it is deservedly a ”chestnut” in bids his beloved ”repose” (rest) three times in which the pianist rocks a cradle with both hands succession, we are all of us seduced. in alternation while the singer’s melody gently swings and sways in cradling motion as well. In 1894, the French poet Pierre Louÿs published Les Chansons de Bilitis, a collection of prose/ La courte paille (The Short Straw) was Francis poems supposedly the work of Bilitis, a courtesan Poulenc’s last song cycle, composed three in ancient Greece at the time of Sappho. The years before his death for the soprano Denise poems were, he wrote, discovered in her tomb Duval and her young son. Like Schumann’s Kinderszenen, these are songs about children dear beloved.” And over and over, a brief silence rather than being children’s music. In the sixth follows—no one answers—before the singer song, “Le Carafon,” everything in the world wants resumes the grief-stricken plaint. a darling baby, so the wizard Merlin obligingly provides a water carafe—it has, we are told, a Enrique Granados was inspired by the Spanish lovely soprano voice—with a pretty little infant tradition of theatre songs called tonadillas to carafe. Lively whimsy and sweetness join hands in create his own Tonadillas en estilo antiguo, in this song. which majas and majos (nearly untranslatable terms for the arrogant, boisterous, charming, A similar, somewhat gentler whimsy is on display proud, working-class young men and women in Strauss’ “Wiegenliedchen” in which a little bee of Madrid who engaged in complex games and a spider are bidden to hum and spin ”my of courtship along a gamut from white-hot little prince” to sleep. (One would never guess passion to white-hot contempt) sing of love. The from this song that his opera Salome would follow weightiest are the three songs in the mini-cycle only four years later.) Again, we hear the cradle “La maja dolorosa,” in which a maja grieves rocking in the piano as Strauss, in his inimitable for her dead majo. The first song, “¡Oh muerte fashion, touches lightly upon many different cruel!,” begins by striking iron-hard, heavy tones tonalities as if on all the different shades of in the piano—we will hear a similar harsh blow maternal love. at the start of Schumann’s last song—followed by a cry of protest that begins in the heights and Returning again to Frauenliebe, there is now descends into the depths of depression. She does even more love in the picture, that of a mother not wish to live any longer. The same progression for the infant daughter she nurses in “An meinem from tragic outcry to deadened quietude is then Herzen, an meiner Brust.” The two chords at the repeated, and the piano postlude recapitulates in start, one loud, one soft, open the doors of the brief the same terrible, truthful contrast. bedchamber and allow us access to this intimate scene unique in German song. In another of The ferocious minor chord at the start of “Nun Schumann’s expressive postludes, we hear both hast du mir den ersten Schmerz getan” could waves of tender maternal feeling and the physical hardly be more of a shock. Schumann knew that motion as the child is swung gently up and down. accusatory anger and a sense of betrayal are among the whirlwind of emotions we feel when VIII. Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz someone beloved dies, and that is what we hear getan: Songs of grief and mourning first in this searing song. The initial bitterness In the same year as Frauenliebe und -leben gives way to more inward grief and finally, to one (1840), Hector Berlioz composed his song cycle of Schumann’s most heart-stopping compositional Les nuits d’été. For what reason, we do not decisions, the wordless return of the first song in know. To make some money? As a vehicle for the postlude. Only the accompaniment, not the one of Paris’ famous mezzos (Pauline Viardot, vocal line, returns—half a song for a life deprived perhaps)? As a parting gift for its poet en route of half of its meaning. We are meant to hear the to Spain? Whatever the reasons, the fourth song, slight, musical ”bump,” the transition from the “Absence,” is a plangent lament by someone present to the past, as she remembers the start parted from his beloved by great distance; in this of it all, eight songs and a lifetime ago. context, we can imagine it as the distance of final illness, separating the living from the dead. Over —Dr. Susan Youens and over, the singer implores, ”Return, return, my PROFILES SUSAN GRAHAM (mezzo-soprano) was d’Auvergne with the Sydney Symphony and David hailed as ”an artist to treasure” by the New Robertson; Chausson’s Poéme de l’amour et de York Times and rose to the highest echelon la mer with Florida’s Naples Philharmonic and of international performers within just a few Andrey Boreyko; Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été with the years of her professional debut, mastering an Houston Symphony and Ludovic Morlot; and the astonishing range of repertoire and genres along same composer’s La mort de Cléopâtre with the the way. Her operatic roles span four centuries, New Zealand Symphony under Edo de Waart. In from Monteverdi’s Poppea to Sister Helen recital, she sings Mahler and Berlioz at the Santa Prejean in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, Fe Chamber Music Festival, while her Schumann- which was written especially for her. Among inspired Frauenliebe und -leben: Variations her numerous honors are a Grammy award for program is the vehicle for dates in the United her collection of Ives songs, Musical America’s States and at Australia’s Adelaide Festival. Vocalist of the Year, and an Opera News Award. As one of the foremost exponents of French Graham’s earliest operatic successes were in such vocal music, she has been recognized with the trouser roles as Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze French government’s ”Chevalier de la Légion di Figaro. Her technical expertise soon brought d’Honneur.” mastery of more virtuosic parts, and she went on to triumph as Octavian in Richard Strauss’s Der To launch the 2018-19 season, Graham Rosenkavalier and the Composer in his Ariadne reunited with Andris Nelsons and the Boston auf Naxos. She sang the leading ladies in the Symphony for performances of Mahler’s Third Metropolitan Opera’s world premieres of John Symphony in Berlin, Leipzig, Vienna, Lucerne, Harbison’s The Great Gatsby and Tobias Picker’s Paris, and London, at the BBC Proms. Back in An American Tragedy, and made her musical the United States, she made her role debut as theater debut in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The Humperdinck’s Witch in Doug Fitch’s treatment King and I at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. of Hansel and Gretel at LA Opera and returned to In concert, she makes regular appearances with Carnegie Hall for Mozart’s Requiem and Haydn’s the world’s foremost orchestras, often in French ”Nelson Mass” with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. repertoire, while her distinguished discography Further concert engagements see the mezzo comprises a wealth of opera, orchestral, and solo reprise her signature interpretations of four recordings. Gramophone magazine has dubbed great French song cycles: Canteloube’s Chants her ”America’s favorite mezzo.”

30 BRADLEY MOORE (piano) recently conducted Oper Frankfurt, and Zankel Hall, where they and the world premieres of The House Without a cellist Anne Martindale Williams gave the world Christmas Tree (Ricky Ian Gordon) and Some Light premiere of Jake Heggie’s The Work at Hand; and Emerges (Laura Kaminsky) at the Houston Grand with Barton and Meade at the US Supreme Court. Opera. He has also led the company’s revival He has performed with Fleming and Graham at of The Little Prince, as well as performances of Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, Davies Tosca, L’elisir d’amore, and The Magic Flute. Symphony Hall, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Moore has conducted Ariadne auf Naxos, Dead His discography includes The House Without a Man Walking, The Cunning Little Vixen, and Christmas Tree (Gordon/Vavrek) on Pentatone, Dead Man Walking at the Miami Music Festival a recital with Cutler on the EMI Classics Debut and Madama Butterfly at the Castleton Festival. Series, a recital with clarinetist Julian Bliss He has been associate music director at the on Signum Classics, and a recital of songs by Houston Grand Opera, and has been an assistant American composer Daron Hagen on Arsis Audio. conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, the Salzburg Festival, Opéra National de Paris, the Moore has been a piano soloist with several Canadian Opera Company, and the Los Angeles orchestras including the National Symphony Opera. Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic. He performed the Martinů Harpsichord Concerto Moore has performed in recital with many with the San Francisco Ballet for the world of the world’s great singers, including Susan premiere of Mark Morris’s Beaux, and has also Graham, Renée Fleming, Jamie Barton, Christine been heard as a recitative accompanist and Goerke, Angela Meade, and Eric Cutler. He has continuo player with the Metropolitan Orchestra, appeared with Graham at venues including the the Wiener Philharmoniker, the Los Angeles Casals Festival and the Gilmore Festival; with Philharmonic, and the Met Chamber Ensemble. Barton at the Kennedy Center, Koerner Hall,