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volume 3

MENDELSSOHN: FANNY HENSEL, ‘THE OTHER

Malcolm Martineau Susana Gaspar Gary Griffiths Manuel Walser baritone Kitty Whately mezzo-soprano TRACK LISTING

(1805 –1847)

1 02’07 14 02’17 2 02’23 15 02’22 3 02’25 16 03’02

4 02’39 17 03’38 5 03’47 18 01’47 19 03’37 6 01’20 7 03’22 20 01’32 21 02’27 8 01’49 9 03’02 22 02’00 10 02’21 23 01’55 11 01’22 24 01’45

Total playing time: 59’33 12 04’09 13 02’13

Engineers: Matthew Dilley, Andrew Mellor & Dave Rowell Producers: Matthew Dilley, Andrew Mellor & Nigel Short Editors: Matthew Dilley, Claire Hay, Andrew Mellor & Dave Rowell Susana Gaspar soprano Mastering: Dave Rowell Gary Griffiths baritone Recorded on 2nd –3rd December 2013, 16th–17th March 2015 and 6th–9th July 2015 Manuel Walser baritone in the Music Room, Champs Hill, West Sussex, UK Kitty Whately mezzo-soprano Executive Producer for Champs Hill Records: Alexander Van Ingen Label Manager for Champs Hill Records: Joanna Wilson piano FOREWORD MENDELSSOHN: COMPLETE SONGS

‘The other Mendelssohn’, the remarkable scholar R. Larry Todd calls Fanny Hensel in the subtitle of his book about her, and the phrase is multivalent. (14 November 1805 –14 May 1847) was especially close to her younger brother Felix, the most famous member of the pair until recently. Throughout their lives – which I am so very happy to champion the particular art of Fanny Mendelssohn/Hensel, an ended only five months apart – they were each other’s musical lodestars in a complex interesting figure in the world of music in the mid who revolutionised the relationship with elements of competition, encouragement, jealousy, love, world of domestic music by having strict rehearsals and not accepting any ‘dilettante’! ambivalence, paternalistic protectiveness and more. ‘I’m a nitpicking Schuhu [a She has a very different voice and style from her younger brother and it was he who screech owl associated in animal mythology with tyrants] and I belong to the savage sadly stopped her publishing until just a year before her early death from a stroke. He race of brothers’, he once wrote to her before delivering assurances of his liking for was very supportive and enthusiastic about her compositions but just didn’t think it her works. Educated alongside her brother through adolescence, she was confined to was right for a woman, wife and mother to professionally publish her works. the domestic sphere of well-to-do bourgeois women in 19th-century , once she We are glad that she eventually went against his wishes and went ‘public’ otherwise we had married (a painter to the Prussian court) and given birth to her would have been deprived of her works, which are very far from domestic fripperies. son Sebastian. Women of her class were not allowed to become professional musicians, much less . But despite these constraints, Fanny found ways to express her gifts in the famous Sonntagsmusiken, or Sunday salons; her father Abraham had begun the musical circle in 1823 to benefit his oldest children, especially Felix, and Fanny now revived the under her own direction in 1831. And little by little, she overcame her doubts about her extraordinary compositional ability, even daring to publish her Op.1 songs under her own name the year before her sudden death from a stroke on 14 May 1847. For a long time, Fanny’s compositions were (where they were considered at all) received as less-inspired clones of her brother’s works. Now that more of her music is available, we can see and hear her distinctive musical voice and can even wonder on occasion who influenced whom. The scholar Stephen Rodgers is one of those pointing to Fanny’s Bachian voice-leading in numerous passages, her complex interweaving of voice and piano parts, and more intense chromaticism than is her brother’s wont. Her musical mother Lea, steeped in Bach’s music, noted Fanny’s ‘Bach fingers’ at birth, and the young girl would later study theory and composition with , a crucial figure in the Bach Revival of the 19th century. The result, evident in the songs that were the mainstay of Fanny’s creative endeavours throughout her life, pair goes by. With her customary chromatic complexity, Fanny departs the opening is a distinctive style, finely crafted and profound. key shortly after the start of each strophe – repetition reinforces the hopelessness – Both Fanny and Felix were fond of spring songs (the north German climate has that and sends the Romantic ‘horror chord’ (diminished seventh chord) wafting upwards effect) and the poetry of the Catholic Romantic poet Joseph von Eichendorff. In his and disappearing into the high treble near the gloomy end of it all, with another Morgenständchen , Nature’s songs and the poet’s song merge in the midst of the stark unison phrase before the close. In her highly productive year of 1846, Fanny forest, where mystic experiences so often occur in Eichendorff’s realm. Rapid, returned to Lenau’s poetry and wrote seven songs in quick succession. For Vorwurf , elemental thrumming in the piano tells us that all of Nature is aquiver, and the vocal another poem about the death of love, Fanny chooses the unusual key of G-sharp phrases often march straight upwards in exhilaration, as if drawn irresistibly into this minor, sounds a Baroque ‘walking ’ in the piano, and creates a dense fog of poet’s ‘weite Welt’ (wide world). To evoke the mystery of Nature, Fanny resorts to an chromaticism. The mention of wandering birds impels a brief moment of brightness, eloquent unison passage midway, before resuming the former lively motion. Robert quickly dispelled, and the song ends with a Baroque ‘Picardy third’ (closing a work in Schumann too was fond of Eichendorff and had set Ich kann wohl manchmal singen minor mode on a major chord). to music some six years before Fanny’s lovely, flowing version, with its broken- One of Friedrich von Schiller’s most popular poems with composers was Thekla’s song chordal, harp-like accompaniment. The poet tells of melancholy and longing beneath ‘Des Mädchens Klage’, or Fanny’s Der Eichwald brauset , from Act 5 of his drama Die the surface of a seemingly happy song; Fanny accordingly both alternates between Piccolomini (the second play in the Wallenstein trilogy). Both Fanny and Felix set this the initial major mode (‘as if I were happy’) and minor mode and – this is typical of poem to music, and we do not know which came first – possibly Fanny’s in 1826. her – destabilises both, the music shot through with chromatic pitches. For Im (Felix’s version is undated and only appeared posthumously in print.) In this Herbst , composed two years earlier, Fanny gives voice to the poetic character’s instance, the songs are too much alike for coincidence to be at work: they are in the underlying desperation in the midst of forest loneliness; the piano, with its stark same meter, and both entail minor mode turbulence that turns to major mode at the doublings between left and right hands, tells us that he has been driven there. But he end. The initial phrases are very similar, but Felix’s version is more elaborate. also hears distant bells from his childhood – we hear them in the piano – that seem It seems only right to pair a Schiller song with a Goethe song: the two writers – the to be drawing him into his grave. At the final word ‘Grab’, a last reminiscence of the two colossi astride the German literary landscape – were close friends and associates intense, driven figure returns. until Schiller’s death in 1805. And who does not love the story of the 73-year-old Another Romantic poet beloved of composers was , a restless, gloomy great poet being so kind to the 12-year-old Felix in 1821, when they met; on a return creature who tried to live in a Utopian community in Indiana, fell hopelessly in love visit in 1822, Goethe reportedly said, ‘I am Saul, and you are my David; when I am with a friend’s wife (Sophie von Löwenthal), and succumbed to mental illness in sad and dreary, come to me and cheer me with your music’. A lion in winter 1844. He is the poet of lost youth, the inexorable passage of time, and overwhelming encountered a child prodigy. For both siblings, Goethe was an inevitable source of sense of futility, of and emptiness. In 1841, Fanny set his Traurige texts for music, including Fanny’s August 1833 setting of Gegenwart . In this 1812 Wege , a characteristically melancholy poem in which love is no match for poem in six lilting tercets and dactylic trimeters, a lover hymns the all-creating power hopelessness; at the end, the poet asks whether the dead in their graves weep as the of love as he awaits his love; like the sun, the beloved endows the lover with eternal lying listless and uninterested on her bosom – and Fanny omitted it. Instead, life. This is one of Fanny’s most expansive songs, and she must have enjoyed imbuing passion sounds in the palpitating piano chords throughout, the decisively the largely diatonic initial section with inflections of chromatic desire, whirling both rejecting the poet’s barbed irony. the vocal line and the piano part into an exuberant dance when the beloved’s dancing Two plangent laments follow, beginning with the 18th-century poet Friedrich is invoked, dipping into darker harmonies when night appears, and ending with cross- Klopstock’s (famous for his epic poem Der Messias ) Die frühen Gräber . Fanny’s ability rhythms to tell of palpitating passion. to devise original and haunting textures is on display here, the austere Fanny knew personally and did not like him: ‘He’s too affected ... accompaniment buried tomb-like in the low bass, with an exquisite vocal melody speaks endlessly about himself ... but if one has felt contempt for him ten times in a above this sombre backdrop. The melisma in the singer’s final phrase and its broad row, the eleventh time he forces one to recognize that he’s a poet, a true poet! Words wing-span are both characteristic of this composer. One of Fanny’s loveliest songs is sing for him, and nature speaks to him as she only speaks to poets’. Heine sent his her setting of Heine’s Warum sind denn die Rosen so blaß ; the poem consists poem Gleich Merlin, dem eitlen Weisen , to the composer , inviting almost entirely of anguished questions, ending with the crucial query, ‘Why did you him to set it to music and saying with characteristic self-mockery, ‘No one else can leave me?’ Fanny accordingly destabilises the main key (seldom securely in evidence) write a poem like this. It takes at least three months of idleness’. With his pen as a in search of an answer that will never arrive. Once again, she edits Heine, changing scalpel dissecting both and bourgeois desire, Heine compares his his word ‘Leichenduft’ (corpse-like odour) to ‘verwelkter Blüten Duft’ (the scent of situation to that of the aged sorcerer Merlin ensnared by Niniane in a web of passion. withered blossoms). In place of Heine’s shattering cynicism, Fanny reinforced the Fanny weaves her own magic, pairing constantly shifting broken-chordal patterns in central poetic image of faded roses symbolizing abandoned love. the piano with an unpredictable vocal line; it is very difficult to tell from the singer’s In 1825, Felix and his father Abraham stopped in Weimar on their way to and from part where one is tonally. It is unlikely that Fanny knew ’s immortal and visited Goethe; Felix gave Goethe his in B minor, Op.3, setting of Das Meer erglänzte weit hinaus (Schubert’s title is ‘Am Meer’, D.957, dedicated to the great poet. Fanny could only experience Weimar through Felix’s No.12), and her conception is very different from his. Her version is a true barcarolle, reports, but she set four of his poems to music in the spring and another four in the with its defining traits of minor mode, 6/8 meter, and melodic loveliness. Heine’s autumn, including Harfners . The two most haunting characters in Goethe’s poem ‘Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam’ – Fanny’s Fichtenbaum und Palme – plays on influential 1795 –6 novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (Wilhelm Meister’s Years of the polarity of a northern pine tree in ice and snow (the Romantic poet) dreaming of Apprenticeship) are ‘the Harper’ and his daughter by unwitting incest, Mignon. The a far-away, mournful Oriental palm. Funereal music in E-flat major for the ice-and- late 18th century made a distinction between ‘Einsamkeit’ (solitude, which could be snowbound pine, complete with a tolling bell in the left hand, is transformed to far- positive or negative) and being ‘allein’ (alone), the latter usually a sad or even off B major for the ethereal palm. Fanny had no qualms about editing out Heine’s pathological state. In this song, the Harper declares that people such as he who more cynical passages, as in Ach, die Augen sind es wieder . She set the first two surrender to solitude are soon left alone by others; at the end, he anticipates the day stanzas, in which a lover declares that these are once again the eyes, lips and voice when the quasi-anthropomorphised figure of Torment will finally depart. Fanny directs that had earlier sweetened his life, but now he is changed. The third stanza has him performers to sing and play this work in recitative style; at the end, when the Harper lovers, and Fanny therefore sends arpeggiated breezes wafting throughout the song. wishes he could be ‘solitary in the grave’ and Pain might leave him ‘alone’, Fanny In her trademark fashion, she also sends the music on tonal travels, leaving the home shifts back and forth between major and minor, between the wished-for and the real. key quickly. Dämmrung senkte sich von oben is the eighth poem in Goethe’s Chinesisch-Deutsche Fanny’s 1827 song Die Schiffende was first published in Neue Original-Compositionen Jahres- und Tageszeiten (Chinese-German Days and Years ) of 1827. From French für Gesang und Piano for 1836 under her own name and in company with Felix’s duet translations of Chinese novels and poems, Goethe created a cycle of 14 poems in ‘Wie kann ich froh und lustig sein’. The words are by Ludwig Hölty, who died at age which sensitive, empathic, highly cultivated people contemplate idyllic Nature with 28 of consumption in 1776 and in whose works we find great sensitivity to nature, the wisdom of ripe understanding – quite like the elderly Goethe. Fanny had the influence of folk poetry, and a distinctive, refined melancholy. In ‘Die Schiffende’, undergone a period of compositional drought in 1842, but in 1843, her creativity he sings of Anna Juliane Hagemann, with whom he was smitten; here, she sails a returned with this marvellous song. Here, death arrives as gently as the falling dusk, skiff on a silvery pond, or chromaticism-adorned, broken-chordal waves in the piano. rendering everything indistinct, hazy, wavering. Fanny’s dusky death is radical Hölty also hails his beloved (called Laura, after Petrarch’s muse) in Kein Blick der chromaticism, with brief brightness for the ‘gentle light of the evening star’ before the Hoffnung , which, like ‘Die Schiffende’, features a dramatic descending leap in the misty unknown settles in once more. To see death approach and still revel in starlight: first vocal phrase and wave-like piano figuration. Hölty was classically educated, and that is late Goethe, and Fanny meets the challenge of such poetic beauty with depths his poem (one of his best) Die Mainacht is written in Alcaiac stanzas, a form of her own. believed to have been invented by the ancient Greek poet Alcaeus from the isle of In late 1836, Felix asked Fanny to contribute songs to a Christmas album for Cécile Lesbos. Many people are familiar with Brahms’ Op.43, No.2 setting, but Fanny’s Jeanrenaud, after meeting her in May 1836 and becoming engaged in September. One strophic setting is a beautiful rendering in a style that, although quite different from was the newly composed Suleika , or ‘Ach! um deine feuchten Schwingen’, with Brahms’, bears comparison with his. The heights and depths of feeling are here made Wilhelm contributing a vignette in which Cécile is a Persian princess, playing a lute evident in the singer’s vaulting leaps upward and in the melisma with its huge wing- and framed by flowers. Neither Schubert nor the Mendelssohns could have known that span at the culmination of each stanza. Here, it unforgettably emphasizes the crucial these words from Goethe’s Der west-östliche Divan of 1819, inspired by the medieval words ‘traurig’ (sad) and ‘einsame’ (lonely). Persian master Hafiz, were actually written by Marianne von Willemer, who had been Among the poems most popular with 19th-century composers were Goethe’s two rescued as a child-actress and brought up by Goethe’s friend Johann Jakob Willemer. wanderer’s night-songs: ‘Über allen Gipfeln’ and ‘Der du von dem Himmel bist’. While Goethe met Marianne for the first time in August 1814, when he was 65 and she was avoiding Heine in Boulogne in 1835, Fanny set Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh – on 20; Marianne could not conceal the intense emotional bond that quickly sprang up everybody’s list of immortal German poems – as one of her compressed miniatures, an between them and therefore the 54-year-old Willemer hastily married Marianne before epigrammatic song. Without any piano introduction, we are quietly launched into a a second meeting with Goethe, who became ‘Hatem’ to her ‘Suleika’ in the West-East song in which both the singer and the piano invoke rustling branches in triplets at Anthology . In Persian mythology, the East and West winds bear messages between the start, and the singer enacts going to rest in the final two long-breathed phrases. SONG TEXTS 1 Morgenständchen Joseph von Eichendorff Morning serenade Wanderers Nachtlied is among Fanny’s best songs, in which the wanderer’s quest for In den Wipfeln frische Lüfte, Fresh breezes in the tree-tops, ‘sweet peace’ that banishes all pain and suffering elicited from her far-ranging Fern melod’scher Quellen Fall, In the distance – the sound of cascading springs, harmonic riches. The initial warm A-flat major (again, there is no introduction – we are Durch die Einsamkeit der Klüfte Through the solitude of ravines inducted unannounced into the wanderer’s meditations) is destabilised by excursions Waldeslaut und Vogelschall, Sounds of forest and birdsong. to distant keys, also coloured by still further chromaticism. Even when peace arrives in Scheuer Träume Spielgenossen, Playmates of timid dreams, hushed chords at the end, we hear in the flatted sixth degree couched inside the piano Steigen all’ beim Morgenschein They all rise in the morning light On the vine’s swaying branches in the penultimate measures the last fleeting reminder of darkness and pain. Auf des Weinlaubs schwanken Sprossen, Dir in’s Fenster aus und ein. In and out of your window. It seems only fitting to close with three songs of wandering, that great Romantic Und wir nah’n noch halb in Träumen, And we draw near still half-dreaming theme par excellence . One of the great events in Fanny’s life was her family’s trip to Und wir tun in Klängen kund, And we reveal in our music Italy in 1839 –1840, and the inaugural musical work in the extraordinary Reise-Album Was da draußen in den Bäumen The song out in the trees beyond Sung by the broad spring valley. 1839 –1840 (completed mid-November 1841) – 18 of Fanny’s Italian compositions, with Singt der weite Frühlingsgrund. Regt der Tag erst laut die Schwingen: When day stirs its noisy wings, title pages and vignettes by her husband Wilhelm – is, appropriately enough, Nach Sind wir Alle wieder weit – We are once again far away – Süden . Wilhelm’s vignette depicts the first leg of the journey: above a train from Aber tief im Herzen klingen But rapture and pain resound Berlin to Potsdam, a bird flies south. Fanny created two versions of this song, one Lange nach noch Lust und Leid. A long while yet in the heart. with arpeggiated waves, the other with propulsive, repeated chords. In Goethe’s 2 Ich kann wohl manchmal singen True, I can sometimes sing Wanderlied , the wanderer’s call resounds from mountains and hills, and we trace their Joseph von Eichendorff craggy contours in the piano. ‘That we might lose ourselves in it is why the world is so Ich kann wohl manchmal singen, True, I can sometimes sing great’, the great optimist Goethe proclaims at the end of this poem, and we can well Als ob ich fröhlich sei, As though I were content; imagine what this call to self-actualisation must have meant to Fanny, who Doch heimlich Tränen dringen, But secretly tears well up, encountered so much opposition from her father, brother and society to public identity Da wird das Herz mir frei. And my heart is set free. as a composer. Her affirmation is inscribed in every bar of this wonderfully vital music. So lassen Nachtigallen, Nightingales, when spring breezes Bergeslust was Fanny’s last song, and it would provide the epitaph on her tombstone: Spielt draußen Frühlingsluft, Play outside, sing ‘Gedanken geh’n und Lieder / Bis in das Himmelreich’, ‘Thoughts and songs go winging Der Lied erschallen Their song of longing From their dungeon cell. on till they reach the kingdom of heaven’. Perhaps the ultimate Romantic stance is Aus ihres Kerkers Gruft. atop a mountain, surveying Time and space, here with utter joy in the freedom of Da lauschen alle Herzen, Then all hearts listen one’s thoughts. The effervescence of this music, which roams lightly from one Und alles ist erfreut, And everyone rejoices, Yet no one senses the pain, harmonic place to another, culminates in a veritable shout of triumph – and she has Doch keiner ahnt die Schmerzen, Im Lied das tiefe Leid. The deep sorrow in the song. triumphed, at long last. © Susan Youens 3 Im Herbst Joseph von Eichendorff In autumn 5 Traurige Wege Nikolaus Lenau Sad pathways Der Wald wird falb, die Blätter fallen, The forest turns fallow, the leaves fall, Bin mit dir im Wald gegangen; I walked with you into the forest; Wie öd und still der Raum! What silence and desolation! Ach, wie war der Wald so froh! Ah, how beautiful the forest was! Die Bächlein nur gehn durch die Buchenhallen Only the streams stir through the tall beech-groves, Alles grün, die Vögel sangen, All was green, the birds were singing, Lind rauschend wie im Traum. Murmuring gently as in a dream. Und das scheue Wild entfloh. And the startled wild beasts fled. Und Abendglocken schallen And evening bells sound from afar Wo die Liebe frei und offen Where Love, freely and openly, Fern von des Waldes Saum. From the forest’s edge. Rings von allen Zweigen schallt, Echoed all around the branches, Ging die Liebe ohne Hoffen Our love, void of hope, Was wollt ihr mich so wild verlocken, Why do you entice me so fiercely Traurig durch den grünen Wald. Moved sadly through the green forest. Hier in der Einsamkeit? Here in this solitude? Bin mit dir am Fluß gefahren; I went with you to the river; Wie in der Heimat klingen diese Glocken The sound of these bells recall Ach, wie war die Nacht so mild! Ah, how soft the night was! Aus stiller Kinderzeit – My homeland and quiet childhood – Auf der Flut, der sanften, klaren, On the clear and tranquil waters Ich wende mich erschrocken, I turn away in fright: Wiegte sich des Mondes Bild. The moon’s reflection swayed. Ach, was mich liebt, ist weit! All who love me, alas, are far away! Lustig scherzten die Gesellen; Our companions laughed out loud; So brecht hervor nur, alte Lieder, So break out now, you ancient songs, Unsre Liebe schwieg und sann, Our love was silent and sensed Und brecht das Herz mir ab! And break my heart! Wie mit jedem Schlag der Wellen How with every plashing wave Noch einmal grüß ich aus der Ferne wieder, One more time I greet from afar Zeit und Glück vorüberrann. Time and happiness slipped away. Was ich nur Liebes hab. All that I love. Graue Wolken niederhingen, Grey clouds hung down from heaven, Mich aber zieht es nieder But sadness draws me down, Durch die Kreuze strich der West, The West Wind blew among the crosses, Vor Wehmut wie ins Grab. As though into my grave. Als wir einst am Kirchhof gingen; When we passed by the graveyard once; Ach, wie schliefen sie so fest! Ah, how deeply they were sleeping! 4 Vorwurf Nikolaus Lenau Reproach An den Kreuzen, an den Steinen By the crosses, by the stones Du klagst, daß bange Wehmut dich beschleicht, You complain that anxious sadness steals over you, Fand die Liebe keinen Halt; Love could find no anchor; Weil sich der Wald entlaubt Because the forest is losing its leaves Sahen uns die Toten weinen, Did the dead see us weeping, Und über deinem Haupt And above your head Als wir dort vorbeigewallt? As we passed them by? Dahin der Wanderzug der Vögel streicht? The migrating birds are flying? O, klage nicht, bist selber wandelhaft! Ah! do not lament, you too are fickle! Denkst du der Liebesglut? Do you recall Love’s ardour? Wie nun so traurig ruht How sadly now within your breast In deiner Brust die müde Leidenschaft! Weary passion rests! 6 Der Eichwald brauset Friedrich von Schiller The oak wood roars 8 Gleich Merlin Heinrich Heine Like Merlin Der Eichwald brauset, die Wolken ziehn, The oak wood roars, the clouds race by, Gleich Merlin, dem eitlen Weisen, Just as thou, vain wizard Merlin Das Mägdlein sitzet an Ufers Grün, The girl sits by the grassy shore, Bin ich, armer Nekromant, I, apprentice sorcerer, Es bricht sich die Welle mit Macht, mit Macht, The breakers crash with all their might, Nun am Ende festgebannt find myself transported here Und sie singt hinaus in die finstre Nacht, And she sings into the dark night, In den alten Zauberkreisen. through old spells and magic whirlings. Das Auge vom Weinen getrübet. Her eyes bedimmed with weeping. Festgebannt zu ihren Füßen Spellbound at her feet „Das Herz ist gestorben, die Welt ist leer, ‘My heart is dead, the world is void Lieg ich nun, und immerdar I lie, and gaze Und weiter gibt sie dem Wunsche nichts mehr, And no longer yields to my desires, Schau ich in ihr Augenpaar; For evermore in her eyes; Du Heilige, rufe dein Kind zurück, Holy Mother, call back your child, Und die Stunden, sie verfließen. And the hours flow by. Ich habe genossen das irdische Glück, I have enjoyed earthly bliss, Stunden, Tage, ganze Wochen, Hours, days, entire weeks Ich habe gelebt und geliebet!“ I have lived and loved!’ Sie verfließen wie ein Traum, Flow by like a dream, 7 Gegenwart Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Presence Was ich rede, weiß ich kaum, I scarcely know what I say, Nor the words she has spoken. Alles kündet dich an! All things herald you! Weiß auch nicht, was sie gesprochen. Erscheinet die herrliche Sonne, When the splendid sun appears, Manchmal ist mir, als berühren Sometimes it’s as though Folgst du, so hoff ich es, bald. You will soon, I hope, follow it. Ihre Lippen meinen Mund – Her lips touched my mouth – When you walk in the garden, Bis in meiner Seele Grund In the very depths of my soul Trittst du im Garten hervor, I then feel the blazing flames. So bist du die Rose der Rosen, You are the rose of roses, Kann ich dann die Flammen spüren. Lilie der Lilien zugleich. The lily of lilies as well. 9 Das Meer erglänzte weit hinaus Heinrich Heine The sea gleamed far and wide Wenn du zum Tanze dich regst, When you move to the dance, Das Meer erglänzte weit hinaus The sea gleamed far and wide So regen sich alle Gestirne All the stars move Im letzten Abendscheine; In the last evening light; Mit dir und um dich umher. With you and round you. Wir saßen am einsamen Fischerhaus, We sat by the fisherman’s lonely hut, Wir saßen stumm und alleine. We sat in silence and alone. Nacht! und so wär es denn Nacht! Night! Let it be night! Nun überstrahlst du des Mondes You now outshine the moon’s Der Nebel stieg, das Wasser schwoll, The mist lifted, the water rose, Lieblichen, ladenden Glanz. Lovely, inviting radiance. Die Möwe flog hin und wieder; The gull flew to and fro; Aus deinen Augen liebevoll From your loving eyes Ladend und lieblich bist du, You too are lovely and inviting, Fielen die Tränen nieder. The tears began to fall. Und Blumen, Mond und Gestirne And flowers, moon and stars Huldigen, Sonne, nur dir. Pay homage, o sun, to you alone. Sonne! so sei du auch mir Sun! be to me also Die Schöpferin herrlicher Tage; The creator of splendid days; Leben und Ewigkeit ists. This is life everlasting. Ich sah sie fallen auf deine Hand, I watched them fall on your hand, 12 Die frühen Gräber Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock The early graves And sank down to my knees; Und bin aufs Knie gesunken; Willkommen, o silberner Mond, Welcome, O silver moon, From your white hand Ich hab’ von deiner weißen Hand Schöner, stiller Gefährt der Nacht! Lovely, tranquil companion of night! I drank away the tears. Die Tränen fortgetrunken. Du entfliehst? Eile nicht, bleib, You flee? Do not hasten away, stay, friend Seit jener Stunde verzehrt sich mein Leib, Since that hour my body wastes, Gedankenfreund! to thought! Die Seele stirbt vor Sehnen; – My soul expires with longing; Sehet, er bleibt, das Gewölk wallte nur hin. Look, she stays, the clouds alone moved on. That unhappy woman Mich hat das unglücksel’ge Weib Des Maies Erwachen ist nur Only May’s awakening Has poisoned me with her tears. Vergiftet mit ihren Tränen. Schöner noch wie die Sommernacht, Is lovelier still than the summer night, When dew, bright as light, drips from his locks, 10 Fichtenbaum und Palme Heinrich Heine Spruce tree and palm Wenn ihm Tau, hell wie Licht, aus der Locke träuft Und zu dem Hügel herauf rötlich er kommt. As he rises red above the hill. Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam A spruce tree stands lonely, Im Norden auf kahler Höh’. Naked on a northern height. Ihr Edleren, ach, es bekränzt You nobler spirits, alas, gloomy moss Ihn schläfert; mit weißer Decke And drowses; a white blanket Eure Male schon ernstes Moos! Already garlands your monuments! Umhüllen ihn Eis und Schnee. Enshrouds it in ice and snow. O, wie glücklich war ich, als ich einst mit euch Ah, how happy I was when, still with you, I could Sahe sich röten den Tag, schimmern die Nacht. Watch the day dawn and the night shimmer. Er träumt von einer Palme, It dreams of a palm tree, Die, fern im Morgenland, Which, far away in the east, 13 Warum sind denn die Rosen so blaß? Then why are all the roses so pale? Einsam und schweigend trauert Grieves lonely and silent Heinrich Heine On a blazing wall of rock. Auf brennender Felsenwand. Warum sind denn die Rosen so blaß, Then why are all the roses so pale, Oh speak, my love, oh why? 11 Ach, die Augen sind es wieder Ah, those eyes are the same O sprich, mein Lieb, warum? Then why in the verdant grass Heinrich Heine Warum sind denn im grünen Gras Die blauen Veilchen so stumm? Are the blue violets so mute? Ach, die Augen sind es wieder Ah, those eyes are the same, Die mich einst so freundlich grüßten, Which gave me once such friendly looks, Warum singt denn mit so kläglichem Laut Then why does the lark in the air Und es sind die Lippen wieder, And those lips are the same, Die Lerche in der Luft? Sing such a song of gloom? Die mir’s Leben einst versüßten! That once sweetened my life. Warum steigt denn aus dem Balsamkraut Why does an odour of withered flowers Verwelkter Blüten Duft? Rise from the balsam plants? Auch die Stimme ist es wieder, And that voice is the same, Die ich einst so gern gehöret! Which once I heard with such glee! Warum scheint denn die Sonn’ auf die Au’ Why does the sun shine on the fields Nur ich selber bin’s nicht wieder, Only I am not the same, So kalt und verdrießlich herab? So cold and peevishly? Bin verändert heimgekehret. And returned home a different man. Warum ist denn die Erde so grau Then why is the earth so grey Und öde wie ein Grab? And desolate as a grave? Warum bin ich selbst so krank und so trüb, Why am I myself so sick and sad, Mein liebes Liebchen? Sprich! Oh tell me, my dearest love! O sprich, mein herzallerliebstes Lieb, Tell me my sweetheart, tell me, my love, Warum du verließest mich. Why did you abandon me? 14 Harfners Lied Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Harper’s song Nur am östlichen Bereiche Only in the eastern reaches I sense the moon’s light and glow, Wer sich der Einsamkeit ergibt, Who gives himself to loneliness, Ahn’ ich Mondenglanz und -glut, The branching hair of slender willows Ach! der ist bald allein; Ah! he is soon alone; Schlanker Weiden Haargezweige Frolics on the nearby water. Ein jeder lebt, ein jeder liebt, Others live, others love, Scherzen auf der nächsten Flut. Through the play of moving shadows, Und läßt ihn seiner Pein. And leave him to his pain. Durch bewegter Schatten Spiele Zittert Lunas Zauberschein, The moon’s magic light quivers down, Ja! laßt mich meiner Qual! Yes! Leave me to my torment! Und durchs Auge schleicht die Kühle And coolness steals through the eye Und kann ich nur einmal And if I can but once Sänftigend ins Herz hinein. Soothingly into the heart. Recht einsam sein, Be truly lonely, So bin ich nicht allein. Then I’ll not be alone. 16 Suleika Marianne von Willemer and Suleika Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Es schleicht ein Liebender lauschend sacht, A lover steals up listening, Ah, West Wind, how I envy you Ob seine Freundin allein? To learn if his love’s alone. Ach, um deine feuchten Schwingen, Your moist pinions: So überschleicht bei Tag und Nacht So in my solitude West, wie sehr ich dich beneide: For you can bring him word Mich Einsamen die Pein, Do pain and torment Denn du kannst ihm Kunde bringen Of what I suffer away from him! Mich Einsamen die Qual. Steal over me by day and night. Was ich in der Trennung leide! Ach könnt ich nur einmal Ah, when once I lie Die Bewegung deiner Flügel The movement of your wings Einsam im Grabe sein, Lonely in my grave, Weckt im Busen stilles Sehnen; Wakes silent longing in my heart; Da läßt sie mich allein! Loneliness will leave me alone! Blumen, Augen, Wald und Hügel Flowers, eyes, woods and hills, Stehn bei deinem Hauch in Tränen. Dissolve in tears where you blow. 15 Dämmrung senkte sich von oben Dusk has fallen from on high Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Doch dein mildes sanftes Wehen Yet your mild, gentle breeze Cools my sore eyelids; Dämmrung senkte sich von oben, Dusk has fallen from on high, Kühlt die wunden Augenlider; Ah, I’d surely die of grief, Schon ist alle Nähe fern; All that was near now is distant; Ach, vor Leid müßt’ ich vergehen, Did I not hope to see him again. Doch zuerst emporgehoben But first the evening star appears Hofft’ ich nicht zu sehn ihn wieder. Holden Lichts der Abendstern! Shining with its lovely light! Eile denn zu meinem Lieben, Hurry, then, to my beloved, Alles schwankt ins Ungewisse, All becomes an uncertain blur, Spreche sanft zu seinem Herzen; Whisper softly to his heart; Nebel schleichen in die Höh; Stealthily the mists rise; Doch vermeid’ ihn zu betrüben Take care, though, not to sadden him, Schwarzvertiefte Finsternisse Ever blacker depths of darkness Und verbirg ihm meine Schmerzen. And hide from him my anguish. Widerspiegelnd ruht der See. Are mirrored in the silent lake. Sag ihm, aber sag’s bescheiden: Tell him, but tell him humbly: Seine Liebe sei mein Leben, That his love is my life, Freudiges Gefühl von beiden That his presence here will fill me Wird mir seine Nähe geben. With happiness in both. 17 Die Schiffende Ludwig Hölty She sets sail Komm endlich, Tröster, welcher den Sterblichen Come at last, O comforter; you, who removes From mortals the chains, come, unshackle me, Sie wankt dahin; die Abendwinde spielen Her swaying boat sets sail; the evening breezes Die Ketten ablöst, komm, und entfeßle mich, O blissful Death! Then shall I soar Ihr Apfelblüten zu; Bring her apple blossom; O Wonnetod! Dann schweb’ ich And meet Laura, and become her angel! Die Vögelein, so ihre Nähe fühlen, The little birds, sensing her proximity, Laura entgegen, und werd’ ihr Engel! Start to stir. Erwachen aus der Ruh. 19 Die Mainacht Ludwig Hölty May night Wie ihr Gewand im Morgenglanze flittert, How her garments glitter in the morning light, Wenn der silberne Mond durch die Gesträuche blinkt When the silvery moon gleams through the Und ihres Busens Flor! And her voluptuous bosom! Und sein schlummerndes Licht über den bushes, Sie wankt dahin; der helle Her swaying boat sets sail; the bright full Rasen streut, And sheds its slumbering light on the grass, Vollmond zittert moon flickers Und die Nachtigall flötet, And the nightingale is fluting, Aus jeder Well’ hervor. Up from every wave. Wandl’ ich traurig von Busch zu Busch. I wander sadly from bush to bush. Verdeckt mir nicht, ihr hangenden Gesträuche, Do not hide from me, you hanging bushes, Selig preis’ ich dich dann, flötende Nachtigall, I call you blessed then, fluting nightingale, Ihr lächelnd Angesicht; Her smiling face; Weil dein Weibchen mit dir wohnet in einem Nest, For your mate lives with you in one nest, Sie tanzt so schön auf ihrem Silberteiche: She dances so beautifully on her silver pond: Ihrem singenden Gatten Giving her singing spouse Ihr Erlen, bergt sie nicht You alder trees, do not conceal her. Tausend trauliche Küsse gibt. A thousand intimate kisses. Weht, Winde, weht, o flügelt sie, ihr Winde, Blow, breezes, blow, o wing her Überhüllet von Laub girret ein Taubenpaar Covered by leaves, a pair of doves An diese Laub’ heran, Towards this arbour Sein Entzücken mir vor; aber ich wende mich, Coo to me their ecstasy; but I turn away, Daß ich mich ihr im Schauer dieser Linde That I might, in the shelter of this lime tree, Suche dunklere Schatten, Seek darker shadows, Beseeligt nahen kann. Draw near to her in rapture. Und die einsame Träne rinnt. And the lonely tear flows down. 18 Kein Blick der Hoffnung Ludwig Hölty No gaze of hope 20 Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh Over every mountain-top lies peace Kein Blick der Hoffnung heitert mit trübem Licht No gaze of hope cheers with dim light Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Der Seele Dunkel! The darkness of the soul! Über allen Gipfeln Over every mountain-top Nimmer, o nimmer wird Never, never again, O Laura, Ist Ruh’, Lies peace, Dein Auge, Laura, meinem Auge Will your gaze encounter mine In allen Wipfeln In every tree-top Wieder begegnen, und Liebe sprechen! And speak of love! Spürest Du You scarcely feel A breath of wind; Du sollst getröstet werden, du weinend Herz. You must be comforted, O weeping heart. Kaum einen Hauch; The little birds are hushed in the wood. Ruft, Palmen tragend, freundlich um Mitternacht When Death, bearing palms, utters its Die Vöglein schweigen im Walde. Wait, soon you too der Tod, friendly cry at midnight, Warte nur, balde Will be at peace. Mir schallt der Sterbeglocke dumpfes Geläut I hear the muted funeral-bell, Ruhest du auch. Und des Grabes Heimruf. And the grave calling me home. 21 Wanderers Nachtlied Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Wanderer’s night song 23 Wanderlied Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Wanderer's song Der du von dem Himmel bist, Thou who art from Heaven Von den Bergen zu den Hügeln, From the mountains to the hills, Alles Leid und Schmerzen stillest, Soothing all pain and sorrow, Niederab das Tal entlang, Down from the hills along the valley, Den, der doppelt elend ist, Filling the doubly wretched Da erklingt es wie von Flügeln, A sound of wings can be heard, Doppelt mit Erquickung füllest, Doubly with refreshment, Da bewegt sich's wie Gesang; A stirring, as in song. Ach! ich bin des Treibens müde! Ah! I am weary of this strife! Und dem unbedingten Triebe And these untrammelled desires Was soll all der Schmerz und Lust? What use is all this joy and pain? Folget Freude, folget Rat; Are followed by joy, followed by counsel, Süßer Friede! Sweet peace! Und dein Streben, sei's in Liebe, And may you strive in love, Komm, ach komm in meine Brust! Come, ah come into my breast! Und dein Leben sei die Tat! And may you strive in deeds! 22 Nach Süden Anon. To the South Bleibe nicht am Boden heften, Do not remain rooted to the ground, Migrating birds from every branch Frisch gewagt und frisch hinaus! Venture out into the world! Von allen Zweigen schwingen Strength of mind and strength of arm Sich wandernde Vögel empor, Rise up into the air, Kopf und Arm mit heitern Kräften, Resounding far through the skies Überall sind sie zu Haus; Are attendant on you everywhere; Weit durch die Lüfte klingen Wherever we enjoy the sun, Hört man den Reisechor: The travelling chorus can be heard: Wo wir uns der Sonne freuen, To the South, to the South Sind wir jeder Sorge los. We shall be free of care. Nach Süden, nach Süden That the world delights us so, In den ewigen Blumenflor. Into the eternal blossoming Daß wir uns in ihr zerstreuen, Darum ist die Welt so gross. Makes the world so great. Ihr Vöglein singt munter hernieder, Little birds, you sing merrily from on high, Wir singen lustig hinaus; We sing out merrily too; 24 Bergeslust Joseph von Eichendorff Mountain rapture Wenn der Lenz kommt, When Spring comes O Lust, vom Berg zu schauen Ah, the joy of gazing from the mountain Kehren wir wieder, We shall return, Weit über Wald und Strom, Far over wood and stream, Wieder in Nest und Haus, Return to nest and home Hoch über sich den blauen With the blue, pellucid vault of heaven Von Süden! Jetzt aber hinaus! From the South! But now – let’s away! Den klaren Himmelsdom! Arching overhead! Vom Berge Vögel fliegen Little birds and clouds Und Wolken so geschwind, Fly swiftly from the mountain, Gedanken überfliegen Thoughts fly faster Die Vögel und den Wind. Than birds and wind. Die Wolken zieh’n hernieder, The clouds drift down, Das Vöglein senkt sich gleich, The little bird plummets, Gedanken geh’n und Lieder Thoughts and songs go winging on Bis in das Himmelreich. Till they reach the kingdom of heaven.

Translations © by Richard Stokes, author of The Book of Lieder (Faber, 2005) BIOGRAPHIES

MALCOLM MARTINEAU piano the complete Beethoven folk songs for ; the complete Poulenc Malcolm Martineau was born in , read Music at St Catharine’s College, songs for Signum; and Britten Song Cycles as well as Schubert’s and Cambridge and studied at the Royal College of Music. Schwanengesang with Florian Boesch for Onyx; Heimliche Aufförderrung and Scene! with Christiane Karg and Portraits with Dorothea Röschmann. Recognised as one of the leading accompanists of his generation, he has worked with many of the world’s greatest singers including Sir , Dame , He was a given an honorary doctorate at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Olaf Bär, Barbara Bonney, Ian Bostridge, , , Thomas Drama in 2004, and appointed International Fellow of Accompaniment in 2009. Hampson, , , Angelika Kirchschlager, Magdalena Kozena, Malcolm was the Artistic Director of the 2011 Leeds Lieder+ Festival. He was made an Solveig Kringelborn, Jonathan Lemalu, Dame , Christopher Maltman, Karita OBE in the 2016 New Year’s Honours. Mattila, Lisa Milne, , , , Joan Rodgers, , , , Sarah Walker and . SUSANA GASPAR soprano He has presented his own series at the (a Britten and a Poulenc series, Portuguese soprano Susana Gaspar’s recent engagements have Decade by Decade – 100 years of German Song and Songlives broadcast by the BBC) included Gilda in Rigoletto for Nevill Holt , Teatro São and at the Edinburgh Festival (the complete lieder of ). He has appeared Carlos Season Opening Gala in Lisbon, Mimi in La bohème for throughout Europe (including London’s Wigmore Hall, Barbican, Queen Elizabeth Hall Grange Park Opera, First Nymph in Rusalka (Opera de Valladolid), t r

and ; , ; the Châtelet, Paris; the Liceu, Barcelona; e

Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum at the h c Berlin’s Philharmonie and Konzerthaus; ’s Concertgebouw and ’s j Cadogan Hall, a gala concert with Royal Tunbridge Wells a R

Konzerthaus and Musikverein), North America (including in New York both Alice Tully z Symphonic Orchestra, a CD of arias and duets under Renato s a k

Hall and ), Australia (including the ) and at the Aix- u

Balsadonna with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a recording of Ł

:

en-Provence, Vienna, Edinburgh, Schubertiade, and Salzburg festivals. o

Semiramide with Opera Rara, return to the Royal Albert Hall t o h

Recording projects have included Schubert, Schumann and (BBC Proms Festival 2016), and her debut with Le Cercle de p English song recitals with Bryn Terfel (for Deutsche l’Harmonie under the baton of Jérémie Rhorer at Deauville Festival. Grammophon); Schubert and Strauss recitals with Simon Her recent appearances include a concert performance of Rigoletto with the London Keenlyside (for EMI) and Songs of War which won a Grammy n Symphony Orchestra under Gianandrea Noseda, recitals with Gary Matthewman, a c

n Award; recital recordings with Angela Gheorghiu and

u Beethoven’s Mass in C with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Stephen Cleobury, Cesar D

l Barbara Bonney (for Decca), Magdalena Kozena (for DG), l Franck’s Les béatitudes and Elgar’s The Spirit of England in Lisbon and concerts in e s

s Della Jones (for Chandos), Susan Bullock (for Crear

u Porto under Martin André, Haydn’s Die Schopfung with the Símon Bolívar Symphony R

Classics), Solveig Kringelborn (for NMA); Amanda Roocroft : Orchestra under . o t o (for Onyx); the complete Fauré songs with Sarah Walker and h p ; the complete Britten Folk Songs for Hyperion; Susana represented Portugal in the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. Susana studied at Lisbon’s Music Conservatory, Guildhall School of Music & Drama She joined the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme (JPYAP) in September 2011 and (MMus), and The National Opera Studio in London (backed by House). made her Covent Garden debut as Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro , followed by Contessa di Ceprano in Rigoletto , Giannetta in L’elisir d’amore , First innocent in GARY GRIFFITHS baritone Birtwistle’s Minotaur , Papagena in Die Zauberflöte , and Voice from Heaven in Don Carlo . Also at the ROH she covered Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro , Gilda in Rigoletto , Winner of the Welsh Singers Competition in 2012, Gary Griffiths was a finalist Mimì in La bohème , Waldvogel in Siegfried , Adina in L’elisir d’amore , Magda in La representing Wales in the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. He studied at the Rondine and Corinna in Il viaggio a Reims (JPYAP 10 Anniversary Summer Guildhall School of Music and Drama where, in 2009, he won the prestigious Gold Performance). During Meet the Young Artists Week, at the Linbury Theatre, she sang Medal Competition. and recorded – for Opera Rara – a staged production of Les nuits d’été (Berlioz) and He was immediately engaged by Welsh National Opera as an Aurore in Le portrait de (Massenet). Associate Artist, making a critically acclaimed debut in Opera roles include: Violetta in La traviata for Hawke’s Bay Opera (New Zealand), 2011 as Guglielmo ( Così fan tutte ). His other roles with the r

e company include Cecil ( Maria Stuarda ), Masetto ( Don

Josephine in Martinu’s Comedy on the Bridge , Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi and Vi in u a

H Giovanni ), Claudio ( Beatrice et Benedict), and Schaunard in Gershwin’s Blue Monday at Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Paride in Gluck’s Paride ed a r

d a new production of La bohème (for which he was awarded

Elena at Centro Cultural de Belém, Mimì in La bohème for British Youth Opera, n a

S the Welsh Theatre Critics’ Award). He returns to the

Dircea/Mochila in José de Nebra’s Iphigenia en Tracia at Zürich’s Grossmünster, title : o

t company this season for Salano ( The Merchant of Venice ) role in Daniel Schvetz’s The Little Prince at Teatro da Trindade, Euridice in Orfeo ed o h Euridice at Convento de Mafra. She has appeared in concert and recital in London (St p and Marcello ( La bohème ). Martin-in-the-Fields, St Olave’s Church, Barbican Centre, Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Having made a successful role debut as the Count ( Figaro ) in Wiesbaden, he was Hall), Winchester, Cambridge, Birmingham, Cardiff, Lisbon (Calouste Gulbenkian invited back in 2016 for Ford ( ) and Sharpless ( ). Other Foundation, Centro Cultural de Belém), Porto (Casa da Música), Zürich, France, recent operatic appearances include Maximillian ( Candide ) at the Maggio Musicale in Malaysia and Mexico. Florence, The Executioner ( Ines de Castro ) for Scottish Opera, Ned Keene ( Peter Competition awards include the Basil Turner Prize (BYO), First Prize, Best Grimes ) for Grange Park Opera, Figaro ( Le nozze di Figaro ) for New Zealand Festival Lied/Mélodie, Best Portuguese Song and Associação Musical do Algarve prizes in the Opera and Malatesta ( Don Pasquale ) for the Longborough Festival Opera. Earlier roles 4th edition of the Portuguese Rotary Foundation Singing Competition (2010). She have included Germano ( La Scala di Seta ) for British Youth Opera; Dog/Innkeeper ( The was a finalist in the Richard Tauber Competition at Wigmore Hall (2010) and the Cunning Little Vixen ) for Grange Park Opera; and L’Incognito ( L’Assedio di Calais ), Le GSMD Gold Medal Singing Competition (2009). Comte ( Che ́rubin ), Mr. Gedge ( Albert Herring ), Arsenio ( La Spinabla ) and Marquis de la Force ( Les Dialogues des Carmelites ) at the Guildhall School Opera. His recent concert appearances include Berlioz Les Troyens with and the Since 2015/16 he has been a member of the Ensemble of the Wiener Staatsoper, London Symphony Orchestra, Grieg’s Peer Gynt with the Halle ́ Orchestra conducted by where he has performed Harlekin/ , Masetto/ , Nikolaj Znaider, Faure ́ with John Wilson and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Schaunard/ La bohème , Publio/ La Clemenza di Tito , Christian/ Un ballo in Maschera , Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with the Berliner Kantorei, Mozart’s Requiem with the Marullo/ Rigoletto , Antonio/ Le nozze di Figaro , Hunter/ Rusalka , Dominik/ , orchestra of the Welsh National Opera and Christoph Poppen, a gala performance at Fiorello/ Il barbiere di Siviglia , Alessio/ La Sonnambulla . the National Eisteddfod of Wales with the Welsh Chamber Orchestra, and Walton’s Manuel Walser has had an extensive and active concert career. A special highlight Belshazzar’s Feast at the Barbican with the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra conducted was his performance of Christ in Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the in by Martyn Brabbins. the summer of 2015, under the musical direction of Thomas Quasthoff. Further A committed recitalist, he has appeared at the Oxford Lieder Festival with Sholto highlights of the 2014/15 season were his performance in Händel’s Israel in Egypt Kynoch, the Cowbridge Music Festival with , King’s Place with Iain with the Concentus Musicus under Christopher Moulds, and in a musical comedy Burnside, the Ludlow English Song Weekend with Simon Lepper, Chipping Campden titled Salomons Reise with Mozart arias conducted by Rubén Dubrovsky at the Music, in Harrogate, Dore Abbey and St. David’s Hall, Cardiff. Baroque Days in Stift Melk. In 2018 he will perform Bach’s St Matthew Passion under In recording, he also appears on Catrin Finch’s Lullabies CD for Deutsche Grammophon Ton Koopman at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. and on his solo album Début which was released last year. Manuel Walser is passionately dedicated to the art of Lied. He can regularly be heard in recitals with Anano Gokieli, Alexander Fleischer, Malcolm Martineau, Alejandro Picó-Leonís, Wolfram Rieger, Jonathan Ware, and Justus Zeyen. He has given recitals MANUEL WALSER baritone at the Oster Festival Bayreuth, the Schubertiade Hohenems, the Berliner Swiss baritone Manuel Walser studied voice under Thomas Philharmonie, and at the Lucerne Festival. He performed with Malcolm Martineau at Quasthoff at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin and the Haus für Mozart at the Salzburger Festspiele 2014. This opportunity resulted in a finished his studies in July 2015 with distinction. In addition to Schubert recital at the Oxford Lieder Festival together with and Malcolm

Thomas Quasthoff, some of his most important mentors and r Martineau. A recital with Thomas Quasthoff and Justus Zeyen took Manuel Walser to e s l teachers are Brigitte Fassbaender, Frédéric Gindraux, and a the Paris Philharmonic for the first time. In August 2015 he sang Schubert’s W

Wolfram Rieger. At the Das Lied International Song Competition s Winterreise at the Schubertíada in Vilabertran, to great acclaim, as well as at the a m in Berlin he received both 1st Place and the Audience Award in o Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg, accompanied by Wolfram Rieger. Another important h T

2013. He is also a laureate of the Stella Maris International : debut took place in December 2015 at the Wiener Musikverein. He made his debut o t

Song Competition and received the Armin Weltner Foundation o at the Wigmore Hall in March 2017. h Award in May of 2014. p KITTY WHATELY mezzo-soprano Kitty is in high demand as a concert artist and has given performances with most of Kitty Whately trained at Chetham’s School of Music, the the UK’s major orchestras, including Duruflé’s Requiem and Mozart’s Requiem (Royal Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, in Oslo with the Dunedin Consort), Bach’s B Minor Mass College of Music International Opera School. She won both (Royal Northern Sinfonia and Scottish Chamber Orchestra), Beethoven’s Mass in C the Award and the 59th Royal Overseas Major (Philharmonia Orchestra), Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Ulster League Award in the same year, and was part of the Orchestra), Haydn’s Nelson Mass (Britten Sinfonia on tour in Spain and the s t

t Netherlands) and Bach’s Magnificat (Britten Sinfonia and Choir of King’s College

prestigious Verbier Festival Academy where she appeared a W

Cambridge). She has premiered a new work by Sally Beamish at the Three Choirs as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro and in Beethoven’s J

e

i Festival, and recently stepped in at the last minute to give an acclaimed recital at Choral Fantasy . Kitty was a BBC New Generation Artist l a t

a the Wigmore Hall. Further performances include Elgar Dream of Gerontius at St John’s from 2013 –15, during which time she recorded her debut N

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o Smith Square and Handel Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall. Kitty has given recitals at solo album This Other Eden (Champs Hill Records, t o

h Wigmore Hall, Leighton House, and the Edinburgh, Oxford Lieder, Leeds Lieder and CHRCD094), made recordings with the BBC orchestras, p commissioned a new song cycle and made several Buxton festivals, working regularly with renowned accompanists Roger Vignoles, appearances at the Proms. Graham Johnson, Malcolm Martineau, Gary Matthewman, James Baillieu and Joseph Middleton. She recently premiered Jonathan Dove’s song cycle Nights Not Spent Alone Opera highlights include Nancy Albert Herring for The Grange Festival as part of the at the Cheltenham Festival (recorded for Champs Hill Records, Nights Not Spent Alone , festival’s debut season, Hermia A Midsummer Night’s Dream on tour with the Aix-en- CHRCD125). Provence Festival in Beijing, the world premiere of Vasco Mendonça’s The House Taken Over directed by Katie Mitchell, with performances in Antwerp, Strasbourg, Kitty made her BBC Proms debut in Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Suite from Act II of Luxembourg, Bruges and Lisbon; Rosina Il barbiere di Siviglia and Stewardess in Caroline Mathilde , and also appeared in a Prom singing the music of Jonathan Dove’s Flight (Opera Holland Park); Hermia A Midsummer Night’s Dream Stephen Sondheim. Her frequent performances with the BBC orchestras include De (Bergen National Opera); Kate Owen Wingrave (Opéra National de Lorraine); Dorabella Falla’s The Three Cornered Hat (BBC National Orchestra of Wales). Her recordings Così fan tutte (English Touring Opera) and Ippolita / Pallade in Cavalli’s Elena in include Ravel’s Sheherazade with BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Canteloube’s Songs of Montpellier and Versailles for the Aix-en-Provence Festival; and Eurydice Orfeo with the Auvergne with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and songs by Rogers & at Bristol Old Vic theatre. Hammerstein, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter with BBC Concert Orchestra. ALSO AVAILABLE... 3 5 6 MENDELSSOHN QUARTETS 0 0 1 D D C C R R H H C C 5

8 | | 0 THUILLE SONGS MENDELSSOHN HENSEL D C STERNDALE BENNETT R

H “Joseph Middleton ... brings sparkle to C ALICE NEARY Thuille’s imaginative and charming BENJAMIN FRITH piano accompaniments.” “... this vastly enjoyable set ... an accomplished survey.” Gramophone Gramophone “There is a warm sense of intimacy in the way Neary and Frith constantly “Throughout the disc the performances “I can only applaud the musicianship of these excellently recorded performances.” respond to each other with the from , Jennifer Johnston, minutest gestures.” BBC Music Magazine Mary Bevan are exemplary.” Gramophone Magazine Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill “After hearing this magnificent recording, you'll be assured of the future of string “Hensel’s G minor Fantasia and A flat quartets ...” “There are far too many lovely moments confirm that, if none of her on this program to list here.” “... intense musical discourse, lyricism, and swashbuckling virtuosity ...” works equals her brother’s best, she American Record Guide The German Record Critics’ Award was a rich talent held back only by being a woman.” Sunday Times