Jakub Józef Orliński Countertenor Michał Biel Piano
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Wednesday 13 June 2018 7.30pm In the Presence of His Excellency Arkady Rzegocki, Ambassador of the Republic of Poland Jakub Józef Orliński countertenor Michał Biel piano Celebrating 100 Years of Poland Regaining Independence George Frideric Handel Che più si tarda omai... Stille amare from Tolomeo, re di Egitto Henry Purcell Music for a while If music be the food of love Z379c What power art thou ‘Cold song’ Strike the viol Franz Schubert Auf der Donau Die Stadt from Schwanengesang D957 Nachtstück Reynaldo Hahn A Chloris • Mai Paysage • Fêtes galantes L’heure exquise from Chansons grises I n t e r v a l (20 minutes) Karol Szymanowski Four songs from Kurpie Songs Op. 58 Tadeusz Baird Four Love Sonnets Paweł Łukaszewski Jesień from Three Songs George Frideric Handel Agitato da fiere tempeste from Riccardo primo, re d’Inghilterra We are grateful to The Monument Trust for essential additional support for our expanded vocal series. Embassy of the Republic of Poland in London summer cover.indd 1 22/03/2018 17:09 Programme Notes Handel’s Tolomeo was first performed unfettered rhythms, boldly discordant at the King’s Theatre, Haymarket, on harmonies, his soaring melodies without 30 April 1728 and originally ran for just automatic repetitions of “memorable” seven performances. The recitative and phrases, and especially his love of the aria ‘Che più si tarda omai... Stille amare’ virtuoso, the operatic and conscious comes from the scene in Act III where exploitation of brilliant sound. … One can Tolomeo drinks poison (which turns out learn endlessly by becoming intimate to be a sleeping potion). The role was with such a gift as his. There seems to taken at the first performance by the be nothing this composer cannot do. castrato Senesino (Francesco Bernardi). But almost the greatest importance of I am honoured and privileged to Who made particularly fine impressions Purcell for us today is the example of his welcome you to this exceptional in dramatic recitatives such as ‘Inumano prosody. Here surely is the way to make concert celebrating the 100th fratel’. In his General History of Music, the English language live again in song. anniversary of Poland regaining Charles Burney described this moment … No composer has ever loved his native independence after 123 years of as ‘pathetic [i.e. deeply-felt] and masterly tongue as Purcell did. He was indeed occupation. We will hear favourite in a truly grand dramatic style’. the Orpheus Britannicus.’ songs and arias chosen by the Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Given its première on 11 November 1727, This stirring tribute is amply justified in Orliński with pianist Michał Biel. a few months before Tolomeo (with the a song like ‘Music for a while’ composed Both musicians are widely same starry line-up of principals led as part of the incidental music for a recognised for their outstanding by Senesino, Francesca Cuzzoni and revival in 1692 of the play Oedipus by talent and performances, and they Faustina Bordoni) Riccardo primo is set, Dryden and Nathaniel Lee, for which are genuine rising stars in the like Tolomeo, on the island of Cyprus, Purcell produced a setting that unfurls classical music world. and the plot concerns the marriage of over a serpentine ground bass. Between King Richard I to a Spanish Princess 1792 and 1795, Purcell made three Jakub Józef Orliński and Michał Biel Costanza in 1191. This is based on settings of ‘If music be the food of are also a new generation of Polish historical events: Richard I married love’, a poem by Henry Heveningham musicians who, by being recognised Berengaria of Navarre at Limassol (1651–1700) inspired by Shakespeare’s abroad, will continue a long tradition on 12 May 1191 and she later became Twelfth Night. The version in this concert of Polish artists serving as the best known as the only queen of England is the last of the three. ‘What power art cultural ambassadors for Poland. never to set foot in the country. Burney thou’ comes from the 1691 semi-opera I would like to express my grateful described Richard’s aria, originally sung King Arthur with a libretto by Dryden. thanks to the Director of Wigmore by Senesino, as ‘in a grand style of The poet Thomas Gray saw a production Hall, John Gilhooly OBE, for inviting bravura’, adding that it must have ‘had a in 1736 and noted that it was ‘the Polish singers, composers and great effect when … thundered by such finest song in the play’. Come ye Sons musicians to this beautiful venue. I a voice’. of Art was written in 1694 for Queen sincerely hope that this tradition will Mary’s birthday and ‘Strike the viol’ was Purcell was one of the greatest be continued for years to come. first published in Orpheus Britannicus, composers of English song. The 250th the anthology of Purcell’s songs first I wish you all an enjoyable concert. anniversary of his death was marked in published in 1698. 1945 with a pair of concerts at Wigmore HE Arkady Rzegocki Hall for which both Benjamin Britten and ‘Auf der Donau’ is a setting of a poem Republic of Poland Ambassador to the Michael Tippett wrote articles extolling by Johann Mayrhofer (1787–1836) United Kingdom their predecessor’s work. Britten composed by Schubert in 1817 and invited listeners to ‘think of Purcell’s published in 1823. With a title that might www.wigmore-hall.org.uk suggest something rather charming, Massenet in the late 1880s. Hahn sets a and songs of the Highlanders in the particularly for Schubert’s Viennese poem by François Coppée (1842–1908), Zakopane region of the Tatra mountains audience, its deceptively gentle opening a poet who also worked as archivist of where he lived – inspiring works such soon gives way to a much more agitated the Comédie française. His poetry was as the ballet Harnasie and the Fourth section and an imposing dramatic parodied at the time by his younger Symphony. But Szymanowski was also span that leads to a desolate close. colleague Arthur Rimbaud, but it fascinated by other traditional Polish ‘Nachtstück’ is another Mayrhofer remains of interest today for its attempt music, especially the songs of the Kurpie setting, composed in 1819. The anguished to express the emotions of Parisian Forest in north-eastern Poland. His chromatic piano introduction becomes working people. Hahn’s treatment of source was a collection of songs made an accompaniment when the voice ‘Mai’ is a delectable waltz-song. Of by Władysław Skierkowski (1886–1941). enters. This gives way to a sublime all the poets set by Hahn, the name In an introductory note to the twelve new section, a kind of musical farewell of André Theuriet (1833–1907) is one songs composed in 1930–1932, accompanied by rich piano arpeggios. of the least familiar today, though he Szymanowski wrote: ‘The melodies Eventually the song seems to dissolve enjoyed considerable success as a and texts of these arrangements … have into tranquility. ‘Die Stadt’ was playwright. In contrast to Coppée’s been taken from Father Władysław composed in 1828, one of six Heine poetry about city life, Theuriet was Skierkowski’s work Puszcza Kurpiowska settings included in Schwanengesang. A interested in evoking the countryside w pieśni [‘The Kurpie Forest in Song’]. ghostly piano introduction gives way to of France and its regions. ‘Paysage’ Let me here express to the venerable a song in which the singer muses on the describes a landscape in Brittany and author not only my deepest appreciation town – glimpsed in the fog – where he Hahn’s setting, composed in 1890 and of his beautiful and valuable work but lost his beloved. influenced by his teacher Massenet, is also sincere gratitude for giving us, anchored by a repeating phrase in the the musicians of Poland, access to this Reynaldo Hahn was born in Venezuela piano part and some very attractive little-known and immensely rich source but his family moved to Paris when shifting harmonies. ‘Fêtes galantes’ of what is perhaps the most beautiful he was a child. He first came to public is based on the famous poem by Paul Polish folk music.’ Skierkowski was attention in his early teens with settings Verlaine (1844–1896) that was also set a priest, forced to flee into the Kurpie of Victor Hugo. Paul Verlaine, whose by Fauré and Debussy (among others). Forest during World War One and it poems Hahn often set, declared that he First published in 1893, the song opens was during these years that he became ‘wept to hear Hahn’s songs’. Hahn was with a repeating phrase in thirds, high in immersed in the culture of the Kurpie Marcel Proust’s lover for a year in the the piano’s register, that returns several people. He started to collect songs and 1890s, and they remained very close; times as a ritornello between verses and published a large collection of them in Proust once said that ‘Everything I have as a short epilogue. ‘L’heure exquise’ 1928, from which Szymanowski took the done is thanks to Reynaldo’. ‘A Chloris’ from Hahn’s Chansons grises, a set of words and tunes arranged here. was composed in 1916 on a poem by seven Verlaine settings first published the Théophile de Viau (1590–1626) First composed in 1956 for baritone in 1891. From the start, the piano – a poet whose writing got him into and orchestra, the version with piano arpeggios set a mood that is both tender constant trouble during his short lifetime is also by Baird. The settings of four and sultry, while the voice weaves a (at one point he was sentenced to be Shakespeare Sonnets (Nos.