PEOPLE LOOK EAST Toll Gavel United Church Friday 3Rd April 7:30Pm – 9:40Pm

PEOPLE LOOK EAST Toll Gavel United Church Friday 3rd April 7:30pm – 9:40pm

PROGRAMME

SERGEI PROKOFIEV Overture on Hebrew Themes Op 34 9’ (1891 – 1953)

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COLIN MCPHEE Lagoe Sesoeloelingan Ardja 3’ (1900 – 1964)

KOSAKU YAMADA Akatombo 3’ (1886 – 1965)

JONATHAN DOVE The Tree of Many Names 3’ (1959 –) from Minterne

MICHIO MIYAGI Haru no Umi 6’ (1894 – 1956)

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JOHANNES BRAHMS Neun Lieder und Gesänge Op 32 22’ (1833 – 1897) (i) Wie rafft ich mich auf in der Nacht (ii) Nicht mehr zu dir zu gehen (iii) Ich schleich umher (iv) Der Strom, der neben mir verrauschte (v) Wehe, so willst du mich wieder (vi) Du sprichst, dass ich mich täuschte (vii) Bitteres zu sagen denkst du (viii) So stehn wir, ich und meine Weide (ix) Wie bist du, meine Königin

INTERVAL

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Rondo ‘alla Turca’ 4’ (1756 – 1791) From Sonata No 11 in A major K331

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JUDITH WEIR Natural History 14’ (1954 –) (i) Horse (ii) Singer (iii) Swimmer (iv) Fish/Bird

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ERIC WHITACRE Temuna 2’ (1970 –) from Five Hebrew Love Songs

ERNEST BLOCH Prayer 4’ (1880 – 1959) from From Jewish Life

NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Chanson Arabe 7’ (1844 – 1908) (The Young Prince and the Young Princess) arr. FRITZ KREISLER from Scheherazade (1875 – 1962) Danse Orientale (The Story of the Kalendar Prince) from Scheherazade

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CLAUDE DEBUSSY Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 10’ (1862 – 1918) arr. BENNO SACHS (1882 – 1968)

Texts & translations for sung works may be found below

ARTISTS

Aoife Miskelly soprano Simon Tandree viola Johnny Herford baritone Cara Berridge † cello Fiona Slominska flute Torun Stavseng †† cello James Turnbull oboe John Tattersdill double bass John Slack clarinet Richard Pinel harmonium Jamie Campbell * violin James Baillieu ‡ piano Hannah Dawson ** violin Libby Burgess ‡‡ piano Maria Włoszczowska *** violin † Prokofiev, Dove, Bloch * Dove, Miyagi, Whitacre ** Prokofiev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Debussy †† Debussy *** Prokofiev, Debussy ‡ Mozart, Whitacre, Bloch, Rimsky-Korsakov, Debussy ‡‡ Prokofiev, McPhee, Yamada, Miyagi, Brahms, Weir

ABOUT THE MUSIC

Since time immemorial people from all subsequently repeated at Carnegie Hall; starting points across the globe have looked to although Prokofiev himself didn’t much like the East for inspiration, with the daily rising of the work, and remarked, ‘I don’t understand the sun. Edward Said, in his classic study what sort of obtuse people could have found it Orientalism, writes, ‘The Orient is … the necessary to reorchestrate it’, he was source of [Europe’s] civilizations and subsequently persuaded to make a version languages, its cultural contestant, and one of for chamber orchestra in 1934, in which its deepest and most recurring images of the version the piece is often also performed. Other.’ Canadian composer, ethnomusicologist, Appropriately for this festival context, pianist and writer Colin McPhee is best known Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes for being the first Western composer to make grew out of the collaboration of friendship – an ethnomusicological study of Bali, and also exactly a century ago. After the Revolution of composed music influenced by that of Bali and 1917, Prokofiev left Russia – believing that Java decades before such compositions Russia ‘had no use for music at this time’ – and became widespread, the ostinato style of moved to the United States. Here he gave which in turn influenced American minimalist initial piano performances, but then composition that followed. He studied with concentrated his efforts on his opera, The Love Edgar Varèse and was involved in the circle of for Three Oranges, commissioned by the experimental composers known as the ‘ultra- Chicago opera; the premiere of the opera was modernists’, led Henry Cowell, who were delayed, however, owing to the music particularly interested in what would later director’s illness, and by this time Prokofiev become known as ‘world music’. From first had also ceased working on his solo career. His hearing cylinder recordings of Balinese music ensuing financial difficulties cut short his time he was entranced; together with his in America, and he moved to Paris to try his anthropologist wife he lived in Bali in the luck there (a veritable artistic melting pot at 1930s, notating the melodies and rhythmic the time, where he went on to work with devices of every gamelan he heard. He also Stravinsky, and many others). Prokofiev’s wrote transcriptions for Western instruments residence in the US may have been short-lived, – including Lagoe Sesoeloelingan Ardja but it’s from this time that this Overture for flute and piano – and original stems. Early in 1919, he was commissioned by compositions full of the sound, melodies, and the Russian sextet, the Zimro Ensemble, to rhythms of gamelan music. As part of the write a new piece. They had just arrived in Dutch East Indies, Bali was subjected to Nazi America from the Far East, on a world tour witch-hunts, which included throwing sponsored by the Russian Zionist foreigners into prison, so McPhee was forced Organisation, and gave Prokofiev a notebook to leave his beloved island; being gay, he also of Jewish folksongs on which to base the new at this time divorced his wife. Thereafter he work. It has since been suggested that the lived in a large brownstone in Brooklyn, melodies Prokofiev chose may in fact have shared with other artists and literary figures been composed by members of the group, as such as Leonard Bernstein, WH Auden, they have never been traced to any authentic Benjamin Britten (who was in the US during sources – but nonetheless they are deeply the war), and various others (McPhee, Britten, evocative of the Jewish musical language. The and Bernstein are said to have fought clarinet features particularly prominently (the frequently over who got to play the grand Zimro Ensemble clarinettist was Simeon piano). It was McPhee who introduced Britten Bellison, trained in Moscow and former to the tantilising music and dance of Balinese principal clarinettist of the Mariinsky culture, and it was through this connection Theatre), and through stomping rhythms, that Britten came to cultivate his own interest sharp dynamics, and pitch bends, a veritable and eventual study of Balinese materials, later klezmer band is conjoured up. The Overture integrating them into many of his works (from on Hebrew Themes was premiered at the The Prince of the Pagodas to Death in Venice). Bohemian Club in New York in 1920, with The pair played one another’s music, Prokofiev as guest pianist, and was performed a few concerts together, and in 1941 recorded together five of McPhee’s Balinese Midorikawa, became a significant figure in the transcriptions for two pianos. On Britten’s women’s movement during Japan’s Meiji score of McPhee’s Balinese Ceremonial Music, period; she died aged 91 in 1962, and her the composer’s inscription reads: ‘To Ben – gravestone was inscribed with the words ‘At hoping he will find something in this music, rest here, little dragonfly’s mother’. after all. Colin. April, 1940.’ Amongst the many fans of Vikram Seth’s At the same time as Prokofiev was in the US, writing, from the days of his first novel Golden and McPhee was studying at Peabody, the Gate in 1980, was composer Jonathan Dove, young Japanese composer Kosaku Yamada who was ‘musically very attracted by the was also in America, basing himself in New deceptively simple eloquence and rhythmic York from 1918 to 1920, after completing his clarity of his verse’. Dove subsequently set studies in Tokyo and Berlin (the latter with some of Seth’s poems All you who sleep Bruch). In his life Yamada wrote over 1,600 tonight in 1996, and the pair later had cause to pieces of music, including some 700 songs and collaborate in 2007. Veronica Stewart – a one of the most famous Japanese operas in the patron of the arts – commissioned Seth to repertoire, Kurofune (The Black Ships). As a write a set of poems, Minterne, for her close conductor, Yamada introduced many friend The Lady Dione Digby, to celebrate the orchestral works to Japan, giving the first 45th anniversary of the Summer Music Society performances in the country of Debussy’s of Dorset (which has since ceased to exist, but Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, Dvořák’s which was founded and run by Lady Digby and ninth symphony and Shostakovich’s first, welcomed high calibre performers to Dorset). Gershwin’s An American in Paris, Sibelius’ The poems celebrate the history of Minterne Finlandia, Strauss’ An der schönen blauen House (ancestral home of the Digby family for Donau, and Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll. Above over 350 years) and the beauty of its gardens: all Yamada is remembered for his song amongst these is a large woodland- Akatombo (‘Red Dragonfly’), a children’s style Rhododendron garden, which is given song composed in 1927, and often voted as one shade by many mature trees, including more of the most popular Japanese songs there is. unusual specimens such as Davidia Many respected composers and poets in the involucrata (‘handkerchief tree’) – a tree 1920s sought to create songs for children that which originates from a remote region of were more beautiful and emotional than the China, and was introduced to Europe in the standard children’s songs of the time – nineteenth century. Each flower head has a especially the pedantic, moralistic songs pair of large, pure white bracts at the base prescribed by the Ministry of Education, performing the function of petals: these hang Science and Culture; these new style of songs in long rows beneath the level branches and, were called dōyō, and they are not merely on a breezy day, flutter in the wind like children’s songs but also art songs for adults. white doves, ghosts or pinched handkerchiefs The 1921 poem Akatombo by Rofū Miki is a – hence this song’s title, The Tree of Many nostalgic memory of childhood, depicting a Names. The cycle was premiered by Patricia Japanese red dragonfly seen at sunset by an Rozario, Philippe Honoré and Steven Isserlis. infant who is carried on an older sister’s shoulder; at the time of telling this older sister (The tree’s journey to Europe is a story worth – something of a mother figure – is no longer telling in itself: French and Scottish naturalists present, having married at the age of 15, and found single trees – on mountainsides of over moved far away, no longer sending news back 6,000 feet, and in the Yangtse gorge – in the to the speaker’s village. As well as a universal 1860s and 70s, and the tree became something nostalgia for childhood, the song taps into the of a holy grail for plant hunters. Sir Harry displacement of families with the rapid Veitch, later part of establishing the Chelsea urbanization of modern Japan in the early Flower Show, sent plant collectors across the twentieth century. Miki’s own mother had globe, including Ernest Wilson. With the help indeed been married at the age of fifteen; his of one of the previous discoverers, he parents then divorced when he was five years eventually located the site, just in time to find old, and his mother moved away, never to that the tree had in fact just been felled for return. The last lines of the poem were written timber. It took him two years to find another, when he was only twelve. His mother, Kata hanging over a precarious cliff edge. He managed to obtain specimens, but on the way original material, but also made many back to England his boat was wrecked. translations or adaptations of Persian, Thankfully both he and the Davidia survived, Spanish, and Indian poems – in particular of and the tree lives – albeit rarely – in this the great Persian poet Hafiz (see similarly country to this day.) Goethe and Rückert in Sunday’s Myrthen). Much of Daumer’s output leans towards the The national instrument of Japan is the koto: sensual or erotic, and – certainly seen in this a stringed instrument made of kiri wood, it is set – there is often an ardent yearning that almost two meters long, with thirteen strings must somehow be suppressed without a strung over thirteen movable bridges along the certainty of fulfillment. Whilst it is insulting to width of the instrument, which are plucked any composer’s imagination to think that s/he using thumb, index finger, and middle finger. can only set texts that mirror their own life One of the most famous koto players of experience, it is of course possible that Brahms modern times was Michio Miyagi: by his was drawn to these texts because he found in untimely death, falling from a train, in 1956, them an expression of his own feelings. He was he had written more than 500 pieces, deeply insecure about his own self-worth and improved Japanese string instruments, abilities – musically, physically, and participated in one of the first radio personally. He was lifelong unable to commit presentations in Japan, and published more to a close romantic relationship (perhaps in than ten books. Japanese music in the early- part owing to these deep-rooted insecurities – twentieth-century Meiji and Taishō eras – like and, probably connected, perhaps in part wider Japanese culture of the same time – was owing to his childhood experience of what considered ‘under threat’ from westernisation today would be termed sexual abuse at the (ever since the government had opened the hands of prostitutes and sailors in the brothels country for foreign trade), and Miyagi was key of Hamburg, where he played the piano). His in forming a new style of Japanese music, Shin only brief engagement was called off, and no Nihon Ongaku, which adapted Western further serious romantic relationships elements of music to Japanese instruments, in followed. And yet throughout their long lives a style that retained a Japanese character. He he and Clara Schumann were exceptionally achieved notability in this field, and in this close – rarely did more than a couple of weeks vein wrote Haru no Umi (The Sea in Spring), go past without their seeing one another – and, his most famous piece, in 1929. It is inspired both musicians of the highest order, they by his childhood image (from before he lost his turned without fail to one another first for sight at the age of eight) of the sea at advice, comment or support. When Robert Tomonoura, a beautiful historic port on the Schumann was taken into an asylum and southern point of the Numakuma Peninsula, subsequently died, it was Brahms who ran to where he grew up. Haru no Umi was written Clara’s side to support her and the family –all for koto and shakuhachi (a Japanese the while probably tormented by the longitudinal end-blown bamboo-flute), but impossibility of being with his mentor’s when the French violinist Renée Chemet was widow. They were, in essence, lifelong platonic touring Japan and heard Miyagi perform it, lovers (whether or not they were briefly more she arranged the shakuhachi part for violin; is one of the great unknowns of music history, she and Miyagi then recorded it in this version but also hardly relevant). Certainly the sense and gained worldwide notability after the running through some of these poems of ‘not issuing of the albums in Japan, the US and the being good enough’, and of the need to UK. suppress how he truly felt, was deeply familiar to Brahms. The theme of impossibility was In the same way as Sunday’s Vaughan inescapable also for the other poet featured in Williams songs are significant for being his this set, August von Platen: gay, in a world first settings of Whitman – a poet he would where homosexuality was heavily criminally return to time and again – Brahms’ Lieder persecuted and denial was the only permitted und Gesänge Op 32 are his first settings of attitude of all, Platen spent his life swinging Daumer, whose words he would set more than between disappointments and frustrations, any other poet (including in his popular repeatedly falling in love with heterosexual Liebeslieder-Walzer). Georg Friedrich friends, and struggling to maintain a loving Daumer was an eclectic writer; he wrote much relationship; his diary describes in detail his complex and unsatisfying love life. Von drums, bells, cymbals, or the triangle could be Platen’s poetry was mocked by Heine for its played by the touch of a pedal while Orientsucht – its obsession with the Orient – simultaneously playing the keyboard: these to which von Platen responded by criticising ‘janissary pedals’ were widely used in Heine for his Jewishness; Heine responded performing Rondo alla Turca. with an equally low blow and publically outed von Platen for his homosexuality, causing the Judith Weir (Master of the Queen’s Music, in young poet to flee Germany and live out his which role she succeeded Sir Peter Maxwell (short) years in Italy. Brahms’ Op 32 songs are Davies, whose music can be heard tomorrow the composer’s first mature group of works for night) is best known for her operas and solo voice, whose piano parts in particular are theatrical works, and this vivid spirit imbues more developed than his earlier songs: it is Natural History. The work was often the rich textures and rhythmic commissioned by the Boston Symphony complexity in the piano writing which Orchestra, who gave the premiere with Dawn captures the trapped, dark, bitter or hopeless Upshaw and Sir Simon Rattle in 1999; in 2016 feelings of the texts – and yet the set ends with at Libby Burgess’ suggestion a reduction was one of the most simply beautiful of all Brahms’ published for piano accompaniment, in which songs, melting as only he can – the love song form the set is performed tonight. Weir’s Wie bist du, meine Königin. music often draws on sources from medieval history (as in King Harald’s Saga, heard in Over the sixteenth, seventeenth and 2018), or the traditional music of her parents’ eighteenth centuries the Austrian Empire had homeland, Scotland, but here she turns seen repeated combat with the Ottoman instead to Chuang-tzu, a Taoist collection of Empire – two great empires, of military might writings from the 4th – 2nd century BC, the and cultural riches, in a battle not just for land oldest of which are known as The Inner but for the survival and expansion of their Chapters, ascribed to Chuang-Tzu himself; respective religions, Christianity versus Islam. from here the parables about natural life as Perhaps counterintuitively, given the threat of lived by different species, human and animal, invasion, all things Ottoman were very much are selected (‘a Taoist Carnival of the Animals’, in vogue in Vienna in Mozart’s time, in the composer’s words). She writes: presenting Turks either as bloodythirsty and dangerous, or temptingly exotic, or just an My interest in Chinese philosophical object of scorn. Mozart’s opera Die literature began in my teens, and was Entführung aus dem Serail, for example, is set directly inspired by my enthusiasm for in a seraglio, a type of Ottoman harem. The the writings of John Cage, in which Ottoman janissary band – the oldest form of ancient Chinese ideas are frequently military marching band in the world, elite connected to musical models. The texts infantry fighters made up of the Sultan’s of Natural History (which I have household soldiers, strictly trained from considerably compressed, from the childhood – was a very familiar sound from translation by A. C. Graham) are typical the streets of Vienna, with its cacophonous of the qualities I most enjoy amongst drums, bells and cymbals, and inspired this literature; concision, clarity, Mozart’s Rondo alla Turca (often played as lightness and (hidden) wisdom. I am a freestanding piece, but actually written as well aware that my own interpretations the third movement of his Sonata for Piano No of these ancient wisdoms may be 11, in 1783). It takes inspiration from the idiosyncratic, and spring from an clipped rhythms of the marching bands – avowedly Western sensibility. But particularly the marching rhythm ‘left – right nevertheless, these are ideas with – left right left’, and also the snapped grace which, in my own way, I have long been notes flourishing before the beat. Audiences of familiar; and I have for some time the day would have delighted in the considered Taoism to be the most frightening yet exciting exoticism of this helpful of established philosophies in Turkish music. Owing to the demand for the conduct of modern life. imitating these military marching bands, piano builders began including pedals on their 1. Horse. The text discriminates pianos by which clamorous snare and bass between the natural behaviour of wild horses and the unfortunate Ernest Bloch is often thought of as one of the consequences of training them. An major Swiss composers in history, yet spent analogy with the behaviour of people is much of his adult life in the US. Born to Jewish unspoken but implied. parents (in Geneva), Bloch had a strongly 2. Singer. This is the story of a singer religious upbringing, his father at one stage who lived (as many musicians do) in the intending to become a rabbi. As an adult he most straitened, poverty-stricken stated that writing music which expressed his circumstances; but he possessed a Jewish identity was ‘the only way in which I magnificent voice, and was therefore, in can produce music of vitality and significance’, Taoist reality, richer and greater than and much of his musical output – with Hebrew anyone else. titles – draws heavily on his Jewish heritage. 3. Swimmer. At the opening of the song, In 1920 he was appointed the first Musical a man is glimpsed swimming, and Director of the newly formed Cleveland perhaps drowning, in the throes of a Institute of Music – one of numerous massive and rocky orchestral chasm. academic appointments during his career – But in mid-song, he climbs out of the and it was whilst here, probably in 1924, that waters and sings to his interlocutor he wrote the short set From Jewish Life, (who happens to be Confucius) a jaunty dedicated to the Dutch-American cellist Hans melody in which he explains his simple Kindler (who studied with Casals, gave mastery of the waves. chamber music recitals with Rachmaninoff 4. Fish/Bird. A giant creature of and Ravel, and played in the world premiere of incredible dimensions, which appears Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire). Bloch wrote as both fish and bird, is described in a that in From Jewish Life his intent was not to passage which seems to me to describe reconstruct authentic Jewish music or our uncomprehending perceptions of melodies, but to capture the complex, ardent the infinite. Jewish spirit and soul. The use of Eastern European Ashkenazi modality creates a Known primarily as a composer and conductor distinctive atmosphere: Alexander of choral music, Eric Whitacre writes of his Knapp writes that, in Prayer, ‘the key of F Five Hebrew Love Songs: minor incorporates elements of the Magen Avot and S’licha modes of the synagogue; but In the spring of 1996, my great friend it is the Ahava Rabba mode (known more and brilliant violinist Friedemann colloquially as Freigish) that predominates in Eichhorn invited me and my girlfriend- the coda.’ at-the-time Hila Plitmann (a soprano) to give a concert with him in his home In the late 1850s and early 1860s a group of city of Speyer, Germany. We had all met composers in their twenties joined forces in St that year as students at the Juilliard Petersburg, trying to create a school of School, and were inseparable. Because nationalist and distinctly Russian music: just we were appearing as a band of as nationalism at large sought to throw off the traveling musicians, ‘Friedy’ asked me yoke of imperial power, allowing nations to to write a set of troubadour songs for become free to determine their own identity, piano, violin and soprano. I asked Hila culture and future prosperity, so this group (who was born and raised in Jerusalem) eschewed European models of music (Italian to write me a few ‘postcards’ in her opera and Germanic chamber music) in favour native tongue, and a few days later she of Russian symphonic work. Balakirev, Cui, presented me with these exquisite and Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky delicate Hebrew poems. I set them became known variously as ‘The Five’ or ‘The while we vacationed in a small skiing Mighty Handful’. Much of Rimsky-Korsakov’s village in the Swiss Alps, and we music was inspired by fairy tale and folklore – performed them for the first time a often Russian, but in one famous case, Arabic: week later in Speyer. One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic The songs have since been adapted for choir, during the Islamic Golden Age, collected over in which form they are frequently performed. many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars across West, Central and South Asia, and North Africa (with the and the Young Princess, whilst Danse roots of some tales tracing back to ancient and Orientale is from The Story of the Kalendar medieval Arabic, Persian, Indian, Greek, Prince. It feels entirely apt to have arranged Jewish and Turkish folklore and literature). this music for violin: throughout the original The East, and the study of it, featured greatly orchestral work, it is a solo violin that in the history of Imperial Russia, and was thus represents Scheherazade bewitching the ‘permissibly’ foreign in the context of this Sultan with her intoxicating tales. growing nationalism – and so Rimsky- Korsakov began in 1887 to write his gloriously Mallarmé’s poem L’après-midi d’un faune colourful symphonic suite Scheherazade, the (The Afternoon of the Faun) is often cited as name referring to the main character one of the great texts in all French literature, Shahrazad of One Thousand and One Nights. but it took a decade of attempting to persuade For the premiere the following year, which he publishers to take it on before it finally conducted in St Petersburg (and which appeared in print in 1876. The poem describes showed the work to be immediately hugely in a dreamlike monologue the sensual popular), Rimsky-Korsakov wrote the experiences of a faun – half man, half goat, following introduction: with perhaps a hint of deity – who has just woken up from his afternoon sleep, and The Sultan Schariar, convinced that all silently contemplates cavorting nymphs and women are false and faithless, vowed to other forest creatures on a warm sunny put to death each of his wives after the afternoon. Mallarmé, the leading symbolist first nuptial night. But the Sultana poet, was in many ways ahead of his time, and Scheherazade saved her life by Debussy was similarly progressive with his entertaining her lord with fascinating impressionist orchestral response to this tales, told seriatim, for a thousand and poem. For all that Stravinsky’s 1913 Rite of one nights. The Sultan, consumed with Spring (see this afternoon) was completely curiosity, postponed from day to day game-changing in the history of music, there the execution of his wife, and finally was much that was radical in this music of repudiated his bloody vow entirely. Debussy: the Prélude dates from 1894, and its prioritising of texture over melodic and At the same time as Scheherazade was being harmonic development, its extended written, the 12-year old Austrian violinist harmonic language and novel orchestral Friedrich-Max Kreisler was preparing for the colour, and the sensual nature of its subject Premier Grand Prix de Rome in Paris, at which matter, made it one of the key forerunners of he won the gold medal, competing against the more flamboyantly radical works by forty other players, all of whom were at least Stravinsky and Schoenberg. Debussy’s music twenty years old. He of course became one of is highly chromatic, and littered with whole- the great violinists of the twentieth century, tone scales, which create a sense of the exotic. and, in addition to touring and recording all Debussy had attended the Paris Exposition the great works of the repertoire, ‘Fritz’ Universelle back in 1889, an extraordinary fair Kreisler also wrote a number of his own of exhibits from right across the globe (for compositions, often solos for encores. In some which the Eiffel Tower was built, to mark the cases they were pastiches ostensibly in the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution). style of other composers, originally ascribed to He was enthralled by the gamelan music and earlier composers such as Tartini or Vivaldi the dancing which he witnessed in the (faced with criticism when in 1935 he revealed Javanese pavilion, returning time and again to that it was he who wrote the pieces, Kreisler watch and listen, and influences from this replied that those critics had in fact already experience found their way into much of the deemed the compositions worthy, regardless music he wrote after this – most explicitly in of who wrote what: ‘the name changes, the such pieces as Pagodes, but more subtly, with value remains’). The origins of his two harmonic experimentations, with the layering arrangements of movements from of textures (a feature of Gamelan), and with Scheherazade however could never be the use of the delicate Antique Cymbals, in this disputed, as the original work was so well prelude too. Prélude à l’après-midi d’un known. Chanson Arabe features the music faune was extremely well received at its of the original movement The Young Prince premiere (the only work of Debussy’s to be encored at its first hearing), and has remained founded the Verein für musikalische at the heart of the orchestral repertoire since. Privataufführungen (Society for Private Nijinsky’s subsequent choreography to the Musical Performances) in Vienna; for three work, however, was met with disapproval: years they gave about one concert a week, of again in parallel with The Rite of Spring, the music from ‘Mahler to the present’ – including dance moves were considered ugly and stilted works by Bartók, Berg, Busoni, Korngold, – and what had remained suggestive in both Mahler, Ravel, Reger, Satie, Strauss, poem and music, became openly erotic, Stravinsky, Webern, and of course Debussy. particularly in the final scene, where the faun, The players at these events were chosen from frustrated and saddened by the inability to among the most gifted young musicians seduce his nymph playmates, appeared to be available, and each work was rehearsed satisfying himself instead. Pierre Boulez intensively, usually under Schoenberg himself. considered the score to be the beginning of Only those who had joined the organisation modern music, observing that ‘the flute of the were admitted to the events, and the ethos of faun brought new breath to the art of music’. rigour and comprehensibility was strong: Mallarmé was unhappy that his poem was set critics were excluded, an event’s programme to music, feeling the text along should suffice; was not revealed in advance, applause was not however, after attending the premiere permitted, and complex works were performance at Debussy’s invitation, he wrote sometimes played more than once in the same to the composer: concert (even five or six times) to allow its listeners properly to get to grips with them. I have just come out of the concert, Much of the music performed in these concerts deeply moved. The marvel! Your inevitably was chamber music, but larger illustration of the Afternoon of a Faun, works were also arranged, ranging from which presents no dissonance with my Mahler’s fourth symphony, to Debussy’s text, but goes much further, really, into Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune – the latter nostalgia and into light, with finesse, in today’s arrangement by Benno Sachs, with sensuality, with richness. I press student of Schoenberg. your hand admiringly, Debussy. Yours, Mallarmé Programme notes: Libby Burgess In the autumn 1918, Arnold Schoenberg (from whom we heard on Thursday morning)

TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS

あかとんぼ AKATOMBO RED DRAGONFLIES Text: Rofū Miki (1889 – 1964)

夕焼、小焼の、 Yuuyake koyake no Red dragonflies are flying あかとんぼ、 Akatombo… in the sunset glow. Owarete mitano wa I wonder when it was 負われて見たのは Itsu no hi ka I saw them on someone’s back. いつの日か。山の畑の、 Yama no hatake no We picked mulberries in the mountain field, 桑の実を、 Kuwano mi wo Kokago ni tsunda wa and put them in a small basket. 小籠（こかご）に、つんだは、 Maboroshi ka Or was it just a dream? まぼろしか。 The nursemaid who took care of 十五で、姐（ねえ）やは、 Juugo de neeya wa Yome ni yuki… me married and left when she 嫁にゆき、 Osato no tayori mo was fifteen, お里の、たよりも、 Taehateta and after that no news about her arrived from her hometown. たえはてた。

夕やけ、小やけの、 Yuyake koyake no Akatombo… Red dragonflies are flying 赤とんぼ。 Tomatte iru yo in the sunset glow. One of them is now resting とまっているよ、 Sao no sakia at the end of a pole. 竿の先。

THE TREE OF MANY NAMES Text: Vikram Seth (1952 –)

One morning, one morning in May As we strolled hand in hand beneath the tree The sun rose. We could see The fluttering doves emerge from out the mist. There was no more to say. We kissed.

One evening, one evening in May As I strolled by myself beneath the tree The moon rose. I could see The handkerchiefs that shivered as they slept. There was no more to say. I wept.

One midnight, one midnight in May As, old at last, I strolled beneath the tree The starlight let me see The trembling ghosts that wooed me as they cried. There was no more to say. I died.

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WIE RAFFT ICH MICH AUF IN DER NACHT HOW I LEAPT UP IN THE NIGHT Text: August von Platen (1796 – 1835) Translation: Richard Stokes

Wie rafft ich mich auf in der Nacht, in der How I leapt up in the night, in the night, Nacht, Und fühlte mich fürder gezogen, And felt myself drawn onward, Die Gassen verließ ich, vom Wächter bewacht, I left the streets, patrolled by the watch, Durchwandelte sacht Quietly walked on In der Nacht, in der Nacht, In the night, in the night, Das Tor mit dem gotischen Bogen. Through the gate with the Gothic arch.

Der Mühlbach rauschte durch felsigen Schacht, The millstream rushed through the rocky gorge, Ich lehnte mich über die Brücke, I leaned over the bridge, Tief unter mir nahm ich der Wogen in Acht, Far below me I watched the waves Die wallten so sacht That flowed so quietly In der Nacht, in der Nacht, In the night, in the night, Doch wallte nicht eine zurücke. But not a single wave ever flowed back.

Es drehte sich oben, unzählig entfacht The countless, kindled stars above Melodischer Wandel der Sterne, Went on their melodious way, Mit ihnen der Mond in beruhigter Pracht, With the moon in tranquil splendour— Sie funkelten sacht They glittered quietly In der Nacht, in der Nacht, In the night, in the night, Durch täuschend entlegene Ferne. Through deceptively distant space.

Ich blickte hinauf in der Nacht, in der Nacht, I gazed aloft in the night, in the night, Und blickte hinunter aufs neue; And gazed down again once more; O wehe, wie hast du die Tage verbracht, Oh how have you spent your days, alas, Nun stille du sacht, Now quietly silence In der Nacht, in der Nacht, In the night, in the night, Im pochenden Herzen die Reue! The remorse that pounds in your heart!

NICHT MEHR ZU DIR ZU GEHEN NEVER TO GO TO YOU AGAIN Text: Georg Friedrich Daumer Translation: Richard Stokes (1800 – 1875)

Nicht mehr zu dir zu gehen, Never to go to you again, Beschloß ich und beschwor ich, So I decided and so I vowed, Und gehe jeden Abend, And go each evening, Denn jede Kraft und jeden Halt verlor ich. For I’ve lost all strength and all resolve.

Ich möchte nicht mehr leben, I wish to live no more, Möcht’ augenblicks verderben, Would sooner die at once, Und möchte doch auch leben And yet would sooner live Für dich, mit dir, und nimmer, nimmer For you, with you, and never, never die. sterben.

Ach, rede, sprich ein Wort nur, Ah! speak, say but a word, Ein einziges, ein klares; A single one, a clear one; Gib Leben oder Tod mir, Give me life or death, Nur dein Gefühl enthülle mir, dein wahres! But show me how you really feel! ICH SCHLEICH UMHER I CREEP ABOUT Text: August von Platen (1796 – 1835) Translation: Richard Stokes

Ich schleich umher I creep about, Betrübt und stumm, Troubled and silent, Du fragst, o frage You ask me—oh, ask Mich nicht, warum? Me not—why? Das Herz erschüttert My heart is shaken So manche Pein! By so much pain! Und könnt ich je And could I ever Zu düster sein? Be too gloomy?

Der Baum verdorrt, The tree withers, Der Duft vergeht, Fragrance fades, Die Blätter liegen Leaves lie so yellow So gelb im Beet, In the flowerbed. Es stürmt ein Schauer A heavy shower Mit Macht herein, Comes storming up, Und könnt ich je And could I ever Zu düster sein? Be too gloomy?

DER STROM, DER NEBEN MIR VERRAUSCHTE THE RIVER THAT RUSHED BY ME Text: August von Platen (1796 – 1835) Translation: Richard Stokes

Der Strom, der neben mir verrauschte, wo ist The river that rushed by me, where is it now? er nun? Der Vogel, dessen Lied ich lauschte, wo ist er The bird whose song I listened to, where is it nun? now? Wo ist die Rose, die die Freundin am Herzen Where is the rose my love wore on her heart, trug, Und jener Kuß, der mich berauschte, wo ist er And that kiss which entranced me, where is it nun? now? Und jener Mensch, der ich gewesen, und den And that man I used to be, and whom I long ago ich längst Mit einem andern ich vertauschte, wo ist er Exchanged for another self, where is he now? nun?

WEHE, SO WILLST DU MICH WIEDER ALAS, WOULD YOU ONCE AGAIN Text: August von Platen (1796 – 1835) Translation: Richard Stokes

Wehe, so willst du mich wieder, Alas, would you once again Hemmende Fessel, umfangen? Enchain me, restraining fetters? Auf, und hinaus in die Luft! Up and out into the open! Ströme der Seele Verlangen, Pour out the soul’s longing, Ström es in brausende Lieder, Pour it into impassioned songs, Saugend ätherischen Duft! Absorbing ethereal fragrance!

Strebe dem Wind nur entgegen, Struggle into the teeth of the wind, Daß er die Wange dir kühle, That it may cool your cheeks, Grüße den Himmel mit Lust! Greet the heavens with joy! Werden sich bange Gefühle Can you feel anxiety, Im Unermesslichen regen? When confronted by the infinite universe? Atme den Feind aus der Brust! Breathe out the foe from your breast!

DU SPRICHST, DASS ICH MICH TÄUSCHTE YOU TELL ME I WAS MISTAKEN Text: August von Platen (1796 – 1835) Translation: Richard Stokes

Du sprichst, dass ich mich täuschte, You tell me I was mistaken, Beschworst es hoch und hehr, You swore it by all you hold dear, Ich weiß ja doch, du liebtest, Yet I know you loved me once, Allein du liebst nicht mehr! But no longer love me now!

Dein schönes Auge brannte, Your beautiful eyes smouldered, Die Küsse brannten sehr, Your kisses even more, Du liebtest mich, bekenn es, You loved me once, confess it, Allein du liebst nicht mehr! But no longer love me now!

Ich zähle nicht auf neue, I do not ever expect you Getreue Wiederkehr; To love me faithfully again; Gesteh nur, daß du liebtest, Just confess you loved me once Und liebe mich nicht mehr! And no longer love me now!

BITTERES ZU SAGEN DENKST DU YOU MEAN TO SAY BITTER THINGS Text: Georg Friedrich Daumer Translation: Richard Stokes (1800 – 1875)

Bitteres zu sagen denkst du; You mean to say bitter things; Aber nun und nimmer kränkst du, But neither now nor ever do you hurt me, Ob du noch so böse bist. However angry you may be. Deine herben Redetaten Your bitter recriminations Scheitern an korallner Klippe, Founder on a coral reef, Werden all zu reinen Gnaden, Become pure graciousness, Denn sie müssen, um zu schaden, For, in order to inflict damage, Schiffen über eine Lippe, They must sail over lips Die die Süße selber ist. That are sweetness itself.

SO STEHN WIR, ICH UND MEINE WEIDE SO HERE WE STAND, I AND MY HEART’S DESIRE Text: Georg Friedrich Daumer Translation: Richard Stokes (1800 – 1875)

So stehn wir, ich und meine Weide, So here we stand, I and my heart’s desire, So leider mit einander beide: At loggerheads with each other:

Nie kann ich ihr was tun zu Liebe, I can never please her, Nie kann sie mir was tun zu Leide. She can never hurt me.

Sie kränket es, wenn ich die Stirn ihr It offends her, when I set a diadem Mit einem Diadem bekleide; On her brow;

Ich danke selbst, wie für ein Lächeln I even thank her, as I would for a gracious Der Huld, für ihre Zornbescheide. Smile, for her outbursts of anger.

WIE BIST DU, MEINE KÖNIGIN HOW BLISSFUL, MY QUEEN, YOU ARE Text: Georg Friedrich Daumer Translation: Richard Stokes (1800 – 1875)

Wie bist du, meine Königin, How blissful, my queen, you are, Durch sanfte Güte wonnevoll! By reason of your gentle kindness! Du lächle nur—Lenzdüfte wehn You merely smile, and springtime fragrance Durch mein Gemüte wonnevoll! Wafts through my soul blissfully!

Frisch aufgeblühter Rosen Glanz Shall I compare the radiance Vergleich ich ihn dem deinigen? Of freshly blown roses to yours? Ach, über alles was da blüht, Ah! more blissful than all that blooms Ist deine Blüte, wonnevoll! Is your blissful bloom!

Durch tote Wüsten wandle hin, Roam through desert wastes, Und grüne Schatten breiten sich, And green shade will spring up— Ob fürchterliche Schwüle dort Though fearful sultriness broods Ohn Ende brüte, wonnevoll. Endlessly there—blissfully.

Laß mich vergehn in deinem Arm! Let me perish in your arms! Es ist in ihm ja selbst der Tod, Death in your embrace will be— Ob auch die herbste Todesqual Though bitterest mortal agony rage Die Brust durchwüte, wonnevoll. Through my breast—blissful.

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NATURAL HISTORY Text: Chuang Tzu (4th century BCE)

HORSE

The horse has hooves to tread the frost and snow, a coat to chase away wind and cold. It champs the grass and drinks the stream, it lifts the knee and prances. Such is the nature of the horse; it needs no lofty halls, and no palaces.

There came a man who said, "My talent is ordering horses."

He clipped them, he shaved them, he singed them, branded them, tied them with bridle and rein; and in stable and stall, he starved them, he parched them, made them trot, made them gallop, in formation, neck to neck, tormented by bit and reins in front, by whip and goad behind, and the horses that thrived on it were two or three out of ten.

Is it the nature of wood to long for the carpenter’s plane? Does clay yearn for the touch of the potter’s hand? This is the error of order.

SINGER

When Tzeng Tzu lived, his gown was torn, his face was blotched, his hands were hard. He lit no fires, he had no coat, his elbows showed through torn-up cloth, his shoes were burst and down at heel; but when he sang the Hymns of Shang!...

....The Son of the Heavens could not touch him; the Lord of the States could not make him his friend; the sound filled sky and earth, as if from bells and chimes of stone:

"Forget body, forget profit", he sang. "To find perfection, forget the calculations of the heart".

SWIMMER

There was a rock where water fell, and foamed for forty miles; it was a place where fish and turtles could not swim, but in the waves, Confucius saw a man. He took him for someone in trouble who wanted to die; but the swimmer rose out of the water and climbed on the bank with a song on his lips:

"I was born in dry land, I grew up in the waves, I go out with the flow, I follow the Way of the water. That is how I stay afloat."

FISH/BIRD

In the Northern Ocean, there is a fish, its name is the K’un; it is a fish a thousand miles broad, no-one knows how long. It changes into a bird, its wings are like clouds that hang from the sky. It leaves a wake in the water, three thousand miles; it rides in the wind, nine thousand miles high; it is gone six months before it is out of breath.

All below looks the same as above; the haze of the heat, the dust storms, the sky at its back and a clear view ahead.

Is it true that the sky is azure? Or is it the infinite distance? Is it true?

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TEMUNÁ A PICTURE Text: Hila Plitmann (1973 –) Translation: Hila Plitmann

Temuná belibí charuntá; A picture is engraved in my heart; Nodédet beyn ór uveyn ófel: Moving between light and darkness: Min dmamá shekazó et guféch kach otá, A sort of silence envelopes your body, Usaréch al pańa’ich kach nófel. And your hair falls upon your face just so.