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A Lesson in Love Robert Schumann 15 Lied der Braut I (Myrthen Op.25 No.11) 2.17 William Bolcom b.1938 16 Lied der Braut II (Myrthen Op.25 No.12) 1.29 1 Waitin (Cabaret Songs Vol.1) 1.32 Maurice Ravel 1875–1937 Robert Schumann 1810–1856 17 Chanson de la mariée 1.21 2 Jemand (Myrthen Op.25 No.4) 1.35 (Cinq Mélodies populaires grecques No.1) Hugo Wolf 1860–1903 Gabriel Fauré 1845–1924 3 Die Kleine 1.43 18 Donc, ce sera par un clair jour d’été 2.32 (La Bonne Chanson Op.61 No.7) Franz Liszt 1811–1886 4 Es muß ein Wunderbares sein S314 1.40 Richard Strauss 1864–1949 19 Hochzeitlich Lied Op.37 No.6 3.52 Claude Debussy 1862–1918 5 Apparition 3.46 Henri Duparc 1848–1933 20 Extase 3.07 Hugo Wolf 6 O wär’ dein Haus 1.26 Johannes Brahms 1833–1897 (Italienisches Liederbuch No.40) 21 Am Sonntag Morgen Op.49 No.1 1.14 7 Erstes Liebeslied eines Mädchens 1.17 (Mörike-Lieder No.42) Franz Schubert 22 Die Männer sind méchant! 2.39 Franz Schubert 1797–1828 (Vier Refrain-Lieder D866 No.3) 8 Gretchen am Spinnrade D118 3.28 23 Du liebst mich nicht D756b 3.35 9 Rastlose Liebe D138 1.21 Trad arr. Benjamin Britten 1913–1976 Paolo Tosti 1846–1916 24 O Waly, Waly 3.34 10 Pour un baiser! 2.14 Hugo Wolf Trad arr. Joseph Canteloube 1879–1957 25 Verschling’ der Abgrund 1.12 11 Tchut, tchut 2.01 (Italienisches Liederbuch No.45) (Chants d’Auvergne Vol.4 No.4) Aaron Copland Frank Bridge 1879–1941 26 Heart, we will forget him! 2.09 12 Love went a-riding H115 1.48 (Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson No.5) Aaron Copland 1900–1990 Anon. 13 Pastorale 2.31 27 Danny Boy 3.13 Amy Beach 1867–1944 Trad arr. Herbert Hughes 1882–1937 14 Ah, Love, but a day Op.44 No.2 2.47 28 I will walk with my love 1.41 William Bolcom 29 Waitin (Cabaret Songs Vol.1) 1.50 65.02 A Lesson in Love ‘A Lesson in Love’ is a song cycle that I have devised, telling the story of a young girl’s first experience of love. The cycle is in four chapters: Waiting, The Meeting, The Wedding and Betrayal. You will notice as you follow the texts that this is a monologue sung from the girl’s perspective. We travel with her on her journey from an eager anticipation of love to her marriage and the sudden and heartbreaking realisation that she has been betrayed. We begin as she is waiting for something exciting to happen in her life. We see that she has an innocent view of what love should bring – ‘There must be something wonderful about love between two souls’ (‘Es muß ein Wunderbares sein’) – and see her maturity grow as her feelings deepen: ‘Since you love me and I love you, the rest matters not’ (Pastorale). Her doubts surface a little as she asks him, ‘Look in my eyes! Wilt thou change too?’ (‘Ah, Love, but a day’), and her mother expresses some doubt that he is the right man for her to marry: ‘Don’t ask how will things end?’ (‘Lied der Braut’). We are startled by the stark bells of Sunday morning and the revelation that he has been unfaithful (‘Am Sonntag Morgen’). She runs to her mother and says ‘You were right – men are faithless!’ (‘Die Männer sind méchant!’). We then witness her devastation as she attempts to come to terms with her anger. She imagines that she will always be waiting for him, even when she is in the grave (‘Danny Boy’) and we leave her as we found her, waiting and hoping. Some of these songs are new to me and some are old friends. Performing them in this way gives one the chance to really experience the core emotion of each song. It also gives the poems a place within a larger picture and, I hope, shines a light on these marvellous miniature works. C KATE ROYAL, 2011 Brief notes on the songs It was through his wife, the singer Joan Morris, that William Bolcom, a pupil of Darius Milhaud, was introduced to the cabaret tradition; but unlike the songs of most other cabaret composers, Bolcom’s are rarely political, as Waitin illustrates. The witty text is by Arnold Weinstein. Three songs on this CD come from Myrthen, the collection of 26 songs that Schumann composed as his wedding gift to Clara Wieck. Jemand expresses the pain of enforced separation that both lovers felt during their courtship, and though Burns’s ‘Jemand’ is none other than Bonnie Prince Charlie, the girl in Schumann’s poem refers to Schumann himself. The two Lieder der Braut appear in Myrthen as songs Nos. 11 and 12, or, as Schumann the cryptologist intends, K and L = Kl., which is a common enough abbreviation for Klara, the widespread alternative spelling of Clara. In these lovely miniatures Clara takes symbolic leave of her mother and professes adoration for her fiancé. Wolf’s Die Kleine, not included in the 20 Eichendorff-Lieder of 1888, remained unpublished during Wolf’s lifetime – perhaps because Wolf felt that the somewhat risqué text might offend. O wär’ dein Haus durchsichtig wie ein Glas, from the Italienisches Liederbuch, describes a girl tiptoeing past her lover’s house, wishing it were transparent so that she could feast her eyes on him at every moment – an extraordinarily virtuosic song in which the diaphanous accompaniment takes the form of a recurrent figure consisting of four demisemiquavers followed by a crotchet played an octave higher. Verschling’ der Abgrund is perhaps the most violent song from the same collection, as the soprano expresses venomous thoughts about her lover which climax on a high A – on the word ‘Tod’ (death)! With Erstes Liebeslied eines Mädchens from the Mörike-Liederbuch we are in a different world of nubile eroticism, where the girl gasps with 4 amazement as she holds in her hands the phallic thing that slithers, coils, rears, penetrates and nestles. Es muß ein Wunderbares sein, during Liszt’s lifetime his most frequently performed song, remains a favourite today. The key of E flat is extremely rare in Liszt’s lieder, but it suits the mood of this ‘durchkomponiert’ setting of Redwitz’s love poem, whose melody rests on long syncopated chords, supported by an almost motionless bass line. Debussy’s Apparition dates from 1884, when the poet Mallarmé was largely unknown. The song is dedicated to Mme Marie-Blanche Vasnier, the wife of a Parisian architect who, with her husband, fostered the young composer’s talent by inviting him regularly to their home, where she in her high soprano would perform his most recent songs. Their friendship developed into a passionate affair, and before he left for Rome Debussy presented her with a slim volume of 13 songs. Schubert’s Gretchen am Spinnrade sets a scene from Faust and inspired in the 17-year-old composer music of astonishing passion and psychological probing: the spinning-wheel whirrs, Gretchen’s foot works the treadle, and as her agitation increases, the wheel accelerates and rises in pitch from D minor to E minor to F. D minor returns as she repeats the opening refrain; but when she recalls Faust’s kiss, the pitch rises ecstatically to B flat and a screaming dissonance. Deep in the bass the dominant pedal sounds, as she returns distractedly to her work. Rastlose Liebe was one of the first Schubert songs to win public approval, as we learn from an entry in his diary, dated 13 June 1816, in which he describes a concert at which he sang [sic] the song to unreserved applause. Goethe’s poetry, he modestly remarked, contributed greatly to the success. At a time when the great Italian opera composers were dabbling at songwriting, often producing canzone of an operatic nature to mostly second-rate texts, Tosti turned his attention to ‘poesia per la musica’, and composed a great number of beautifully crafted, highly melodic songs to more serious texts than had hitherto been the norm. Pour un baiser! sets a love poem by Georges Doncieux. Among the landmarks in the study of European folk music is Joseph Canteloube’s four-volume Anthologie des Chants populaires françaises, published between 1939 and 1944 – a wonderful example of national pride during the darkest days of the Occupation. The ‘Songs of the Auvergne’ made a huge impact on singers and concert-goers: Tchut, tchut is a touching love song, at the end of which the girl proclaims with glee: ‘There may be girls with nicer hairdos/But it’s better to get more kisses!’ Bridge’s Love went a-riding sets a poem by Mary Coleridge, the great-great niece of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. ‘Love went a-riding over the earth,/on Pegasus he rode’ run the opening lines, and, inspired by this ‘Pegasus’ image, Bridge responds with galloping music that takes us on an exhilarating journey with breathless changes of key from G flat major to A major to D minor, D flat major, with a final sprint to the line in a flat out G flat! Copland’s Pastorale, to a poem translated from the Kafiristan by E. Power Mathys, was written in New York in 1921 and received its most celebrated performance some time later with Nadia Boulanger at the piano. Heart, we will forget him! comes from the Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson.

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