Poldowski Art Songs
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Poldowski Art songs Angelique Zuluaga, soprano Gwendolyn Mok, piano Alexander String Quartet Ryan Zwahlen, oboe d’amore DE 3538 1 DELOS DE 3538 POLDOWSKI DELOS DE 3538 POLDOWSKI Poldowski | Art songs Down by the Sally* Gardens ♦ O! Let the Solid Ground ♦ To Love ♦ Song ♦ Reeds of Innocence ♦ Narcisse ♦ Sérénade ♦ L’heure exquise ♦ Dans une musette ♦ Mandoline ♦ Effet de neige ♦ A Clymène ♦ Cythère ♦ Dimanche d’Av r i l ♦ Spleen ♦ Cortège ♦ Bruxelles ♦ A Poor Young Shepherd ♦ Berceuse d’armorique ♦ Dansons la gigue ♦ Pierrot ♦ Colombine ♦ En Sourdine ♦ Soir • • ART SONGS ART SONGS ART CLAUDE DEBUSSY: Pierrot Angelique Zuluaga, soprano REYNALDO HAHN: En sourdine** LOUIS AUBERT: Soir ** Gwendolyn Mok, piano Total Playing Time: 65:28 Alexander String Quartet Ryan Zwahlen, oboe d’amore variant spelling of “Salley”* alternate settings of the Tracks 1,2,4 and 5: world premiere recordings Poldowski treatments** ORIGINAL ORIGINAL DIGITAL DIGITAL Poldowski Art songs 1. Down by the Sally† Gardens (1:08) 21. CLAUDE DEBUSSY: Pierrot (1:44) 2. O! Let the Solid Ground (2:53) 22. POLDOWSKI: Colombine (2:00) 3. To Love (1:53) 4. Song (2:17) 23. REYNALDO HAHN: En sourdine (3:23) 5. Reeds of Innocence (1:45) 24. POLDOWSKI: En sourdine (2:53) 6. Narcisse (2:32) * 25. LOUIS AUBERT: Soir (4:50) 7. Sérénade (2:26) 26. POLDOWSKI: Soir (4:39) ** 8. L’heure exquise (2:41) 9. Dans une musette (3:50) Total Playing Time: 65:28 10. Mandoline (1:40) 11. Effet de neige (2:38) † (var. of Salley) 12. A Clymène (2:14) 13. Cythère (1:06) Tracks 1, 2, 4 and 5: world premiere recordings 14. Dimanche d’Avril (2:48) 15. Spleen (2:29) Angelique Zuluaga, soprano 16. Cortège (1:31) Gwendolyn Mok, piano (Tracks 1–5; 7-26) 17. Bruxelles (2:48) Alexander String Quartet * 18. A Poor Young Shepherd (1:48) Ryan Zwahlen, oboe d’amore ** 19. Berceuse d’Armorique (3:55) 20. Dansons la gigue (1:35) 2 ike many other women composers of the with the composers André Gédalge and Vincent past, Poldowski’s name is not particularly d’Indy, though no details of her studies there are Lwell known today. Yet between 1900 and known. From 1911 onwards, Roeder and Du- her death in 1932, she was a well-known fig- rand in Paris began publishing her French songs: ure in such leading musical meccas as London, mostly settings of the poetry of Paul Verlaine, for Brussels, and New York and — despite her own whose art she felt a great affinity. misgivings — was considered a successful com- poser. Now the rediscovery of Poldowski’s songs In the 1920s, Chester in London published some brings us closer to this fascinating woman. of Poldowski’s music, including more French songs, solo piano pieces, and works for violin Poldowski was the pseudonym of Lady Dean and piano as well as clarinet and piano. It ap- Paul, born Irène Régine Wieniawska, youngest pears that most of these songs, despite their daughter of the celebrated Polish violinist and dates of publication, were written between 1900 composer Henryk Wieniawski. She was born and 1910. Their frequent appearance on con- in Brussels in 1879 but never knew her famous cert programs in London and elsewhere earned father due to his early death in 1880. She en- Poldowski the privilege of becoming personally joyed a successful career as a pianist and was a acquainted with some of the leading performers largely self-taught composer. Some biograph- of the day, including the tenor Gervase Elwes, ical sources suggest that she studied piano one of her music’s most influential advocates. and composition at the Brussels Conservatoire, though there are no substantiating records. But Other close associates included Sir Malcolm Sar- she is known to have begun composing at an gent, Sir Henry Wood (who twice invited her to early age, with Schott publishing her first songs perform her works at the Proms in the Queen’s in Belgium in the 1890s. Around 1896, she Hall), and Sir Thomas Beecham, who was alleged- moved to London, where she began to estab- ly interested in producing one of her short operas. lish herself as a pianist and composer. In 1900, Indeed, Poldowski enjoyed a hectic social life with- Chappell published Poldowski’s first London in London’s musical scene, though she associated works, two songs with piano accompaniment. mostly with performers and artists rather than other composers. Still, she was friendly with some In 1901 Poldowski married an aristocrat, Sir Au- of her contemporaries, including Roger Quilter, brey Dean Paul; the marriage lasted until the Peter Warlock, and Maude Valerie White. couple separated in 1921. In 1902, she gave birth to her first son, Aubrey Donald, who died In 1924, in a letter to her publisher Chester, in 1904 — the same year her second son, Brian, she expressed disappointment that more of was born; her daughter Brenda followed in 1907. her large-scale works had not been accepted During this period, she traveled to Paris to study for publication. Indeed, much of her oeuvre 3 remains unpublished, and many of the original death of her eldest son, the eventual breakup of scores are missing. In 2003, however, her Sona- her marriage, and her often disastrous financial ta for Violin and Piano — after gathering dust situation, combined with poor health, meant in the National Library of Poland for many years that she had to be resourceful in order to sur- — was finally published in the United States. vive. But despite her misfortunes, Poldowski’s indomitable spirit and musical gifts gained her Poldowski’s earlier works, which appear to have the satisfaction of having her music heard — been composed before the First World War, are and heralded — during her lifetime. French in style: one hears in them distinct echoes of Fauré and Debussy. Yet her own unique voice In 1932, upon her untimely death after a long always prevails. Her later works — which began illness, her more influential friends organized a to be published in the 1920s — show a change series of concerts to promote her life’s musical in style, one that incorporates a more modernist legacy and to honor her alleged final words: approach to composition, with increasing use of “Do look after my music!” dissonance and a tendency to explore greater degrees of instrumental virtuosity. For many Poldowski’s talents were not confined to music years, these works remained unperformed. alone. Sources suggest that she wrote children’s stories and designed clothes for her aristocratic During her lifetime, Poldowski’s works enjoyed friends in the late 1920s, when money was scarce. international attention and were often featured During that time, she also penned four short on concert programs in the United Kingdom, essays that express her views on modernism in Belgium, France, Spain, and the United States music, her thoughts on the influence of jazz, her before fading into relative obscurity. But since adoration of Verlaine, and her celebration of two the dawning of the new millennium, performers settings of Laurent de Tailhade’s poetry. — particularly singers — are rediscovering her The earliest songs presented here are two set- wonderful miniatures, which are again gaining tings in English from 1900. “O! Let the Solid exposure in concerts and recordings. Ground” (Tennyson) and “Down by the Sally Gardens” (Yeats) are essentially drawing room The restoration of an article about Poldowski in ballads that reveal a youthful composer still in the 2001 edition of the New Grove Dictionary II search of her compositional voice. Poldowski’s (which, like those about so many other female truest talent emerges later in her many settings composers, had been omitted from the previ- of Verlaine’s poetry, of which thirteen are re- ous edition) has prompted renewed interest in corded here. this fascinating lady, who sought to combine family life with musical endeavors and endured These settings reveal the clear inspiration extreme hardships for the sake of her art. The Poldowski derived from the verses of this great 4 symbolist. Verlaine’s art never failed to draw setting of “En sourdine,” from his Chansons gris- highly sympathetic responses from her, replete es, shares many similar traits with the Poldowski with music of great beauty, intense feeling, vivid setting in terms of ambiance and restraint. color, and palpable sensuality. In her 1921 essay on the poet, she declares, “…he is of the mob and Verlaine’s Aquarelles collection is represented of the Gods.” Indeed, the uncanny “kindred spir- here by three settings. The darkly brooding it” parallels between their lives and personalities “Spleen” contrasts with the vibrant and dra- are noteworthy, and we may well interpret this matic “Dansons la gigue,” while “A Poor feeling of shared experience as being at the core Young Shepherd” (Verlaine’s only poem with of their artistic affinity. Verlaine’s traits as well as an English title), recalls the pastoral elegance of his artistic and human struggles are clearly mir- Fêtes galantes and many other Verlaine poems. rored in the course of Poldowski’s own life: Both had strong artistic temperaments, the inability “L’heure exquise” is one of Poldowski’s best- to learn from life’s mistakes, failed marriages, loved songs. Taken from the collection La bonne experimentation with drugs, dalliances with chanson, written for Verlaine’s wife, Mathilde, it same-sex relationships, conversion to Catholi- typifies the excesses of youthful love that hov- cism, severe financial problems, and long-term er between the peaceful evocation of moonlit illness — all of which bind these two remarkable landscapes and the lovers’ passionate outcries talents. It seems inevitable that Poldowski would — all of which finally melt into ecstasy in “The create so many Verlaine settings.