FACULTY RECITAL In the Presence of Love

Ethan Yichen Lee, countertenor Long Tang, piano

Faith United Methodist Church Saturday, April 24, 2021 2:00 pm

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Adelaide, Op. 46 (1770-1827)

FRANZ SCHUBERT Der Tod und das Mädchen, D. 531, Op. 7, No. 3 (1797-1828) Nacht und Träume, D. 827

FRANZ SCHUBERT Ständchen from Schwanengesang, D. 957, No. 4 (1797-1828) Du bist die Ruh, D. 776, Op. 59, No. 3

intermission

ANTONIO CALDARA Selve amiche, ombrose piante (1670-1736)

CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD GLUCK O del mio dolce ardor (1714-1787)

ANTONIO CESTI Intorno all’idol mio (1623-1669)

ANTONIO LOTTI Pur dicesti, o bocca bella (1667-1740)

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Pena tiranna from Amadigi di Gaula, HWV 11 (1685-1759) Al lampo dell’armi from Giulio Cesare, HWV 17

Biography

Ethan Yichen Lee is a diverse musician who has performed extensively in opera, Long Tang is a musician with diverse skills and interests. Since the age of four, oratorio, and chamber music and has won numerous awards as a vocalist and piano piano playing has been her most treasured activity despite all the other enterprises accompanist. The Yangtze Evening Post described him as “Lee is like a rising star, she pursued prior to establishing herself as a professional musician. Long acquired who has become one of the most outstanding countertenors in China.” her master's degree in accounting at twenty-two and worked as an accountant for the esteemed public accounting firm Ernst & Young. She has also worked as a freelance As an active performer, Lee has recently appeared in leading roles such as Cesare in translator with nine well-reviewed books published in China. Meanwhile, music has Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, never been absent from her life. In high school, she was a keyboardist in the orchestra of Nerone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, and Nero-Caligula in Ilya annual school musicals, a pianist at weekly masses, and a prize winner at state-level Demutsky’s Black Square. Past performances include Purcell’s King Arthur, youth piano competitions. Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, and Yang Ming’s Sister Jiang. Additionally, Lee has performed as a soloist with Sinfonia da Camera Chamber Orchestra, Concerto In business school, she initiated a chamber orchestra with fellow students and faculty Urbano Baroque Ensemble, and Estampe Trio. members who were as passionate about music and performed piano concerti together. While working as an accountant, she became an enthusiastic concert-goer and record In addition to Lee’s career as a vocalist, he has earned many achievements as a collector who saturated herself with the vast classical repertoire. She also read music pianist. Highlights of Lee’s piano accomplishments include the first places in solo history and musical styles in her hour of leisure. Eventually, she decided to turn her piano and piano accompanying at the Fifth Jiangsu Collegiate Music Competition. passion into the dedication and pursue music studies professionally so that she could enjoy and share music more informedly and build a solid foundation for the lifetime Lee earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in music education (piano concentration) from pursuit. In the course of her professional training, she further broadened her musical Nanjing Normal University (China), where he served as a teaching assistant in interest by learning to play the harpsichord, playing the organ for church services, and several music classes. He received a Master of Music degree in vocal performance being a piano accompanist. from Illinois State University and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in vocal performance and literature at the University of Illinois under the tutelage of Ollie Long is currently a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Watts Davis. Before joining the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Performance and Literature at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her Champaign, Lee taught at the University of Illinois at Springfield and Illinois principal teachers include William Heiles, Mia Hynes, and Douglas Buys. She has taken College. Lee also serves as a member of the National Association of Teachers of master classes with renowned pianists and pedagogues such as Logan Skelton Singing (NATS) and the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA). and Nelita True.

Program Note

Adelaide There is an abrupt change of mood and rhythm at ‘Laß auch dir die Brust bewegen’, but the Beethoven wrote “Adelaide,” a song for solo voice and piano, between 1794 and 1796, when he was in singer’s macho confidence is a sham; and though the thrice repeated ‘Komm, beglücke mich!’ his mid-twenties. The text of the song is a poem in German by Friedrich von Matthisson, to whom suggests sexual union (especially when voice and piano combine in triplet thirds during the Beethoven dedicated the work and to whom he wrote after its completion: “My most ardent wish will first repeat of the phrase), it loses all sense of conviction in the final repetition and peters away be fulfilled if you are not dissatisfied with the manner in which I have set your heavenly ‘Adelaide’ to in a heartbreaking decrescendo, as the singer realizes how unattainable his beloved has music.” The poem’s theme of yearning for an unattainable woman clearly appealed to the young become. Beethoven, who would make this theme the animating one of his love life. Du bist die Ruh The central melody of the song is clearly borrowed from the middle movement of Mozart’s Piano Schubert’s Du bist die Ruh, is one of the most romantic and emotional pieces in his collection. Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K. 478, written a decade earlier—so much so that a listener ignorant of the This passionate poem is by the inspirational German poet, Friedrich Rückert. The poem two compositions might, upon first hearing both, think Mozart’s a straightforward transcription of the expresses the true depth and pain of a familiar love. Schubert translates the text’s sensuality song. perfectly, with loving and gentle themes and simple form, thus creating a beautiful and moving song. Schubert uses a light and subtle approach in the accompaniment to enhance the “Adelaide” was one of Beethoven’s most popular songs during his lifetime and for decades after his sweetness of the lyric melody in the vocal line. This piece was written during the Romantic era death. Like most German art songs of Beethoven’s era, however, it is regrettably not well known which composers during this period sought to make the music as emotional and moving as today. possible.

Der Tod und das Mädchen Selve amiche, ombrose piante Der Tod und das Mädchen is a very famous lied composed by Franz Schubert in February 1817 for Selve amiche, ombrose piante is one of the most popular songs written by Antonio Caldara, voice and piano. The text of this piece is derived from a poem written by German poet Matthias who is best known as a composer of operas, cantatas, and oratorios. Several of his works have Claudius. The text of this poem displays that it is a dialogue between a girl and death with death, libretti by Pietro Metastasio, the court poet at Vienna from 1729. trying to persuade the girl to die, similar to Schubert's other lied, 'Der Erlkonig'. This piece provides two sections, the passionate music of the fearful maiden and the slow soothing melody of death. O del mio dolce ardor O del mio dolce ardor is from the opera Paride ed Elena (1770). Paris, a prince of Troy, who Nacht und Träume sings this aria. As told in Homer’s Iliad, three goddesses ask Paris (a human) to choose which Nacht und Träume is a Lied for voice and piano by Franz Schubert, from a text by Matthäus von of them is the most beautiful. Paris chooses Aphrodite, and is rewarded with the love of the Collin, and published in 1825. The vocal line stretches into the void and lures moonlight, memories most beautiful woman in the world - Helen, queen of Sparta. He sings this aria upon arriving and spirits to visit our dreams. In the piano, slow unruffled semiquavers breathe steadily. There is on a beach within sight of Sparta, and the object of his affections. however a touch of lonely, resounding desolation on the diminished chord of 'Rufen, wenn der Tag erwacht': we plead for night's return in order to live again in a better world, to recapture the joys that Intorno all'idol mio we once possessed. This is a theme of a number of Schubert's greatest songs. Many years before Freud, Antonio Cesti was a successful writer of operas who served in a number of musical positions the poet knew that sleep—the other side of the coin of death—is the key to our past joys and troubles. in several European countries. The opera Orontea was written while Cesti was employed at the court of the archduke in Innsbruck, Austria. The aira, Intorno all'idol mio, is sung bu Ständchen Orontea, the queen of Egypt, as a prayer for a restful sleep and sweet dreams for her lover, A similar melancholy informs ‘Ständchen’, the most celebrated serenade in all music. Schubert’s Alidoro. irresistible tune has led some singers and pianists to perform the song as euphorically as possible – but that is to misunderstand the poem, the music and the theme of these Rellstab songs. The song might Pur dicesti, o bocca bella begin brightly enough with staccato quavers that suggest a plectrum-plucked guitar (they only appear Antonio Lotti wrote about thirty operas, thus resulting in his status as one of the most popular in the four bar prelude, but the staccato marking should be observed throughout), the key, however, is opera composers of his day. While this aria has found a place in the standard vocal repertoire, minor and all four verses are touched with a sense of vulnerability – verse three in particular with its the opera which it comes from is unknown. It first surfaced in a manuscript entitled, “32 Arias mention of nightingales which, traditionally, sing about unhappy love and not its fulfilment. by Sigr. Anto. Lotti.” Pur dicesti expresses the beauty of a single kiss and explores how one small action can create pure bliss. Pena tiranna Amadigi di Gaula takes us back to 1715, when Handel was living with the Earl of Burlington while seeking to make a name for himself on London’s music scene. Inspired by a libretto by Antoine Houdar de Lamotte, the opera premiered at the King’s Theatre. Amadigi, a Paladin, and Dardano, the prince of Thrace, are both in love with Princess Oriana, who only has eyes for Amadigi. The magnificent Pena tiranna, a sort of sarabande in D minor, is highly evocative of Rinaldo’s famous Lascia ch’io pianga.

In this aria set in the second act, Dardano laments not being the focus of Oriana’s affection. The 1724- 1725 season was one of Handel’s most productive, with three of his biggest operatic masterpieces completed during this time: Giulio Cesare, Tamerlano, and Rodelinda. Inspired by Corneille’s tragedy, Pertharite, roi des Lombards, the opera Rodelinda plunges us into the same world as Flavio. In the third act, Bertarido (another role first sung by Senesino), the Lombard king deposed by Grimoaldo, attempts to murder his usurper but instead assassinates Grimoaldo’s counselor, Garibaldo. In the heroic aria Vivi, tiranno, Bertarido challenges Grimoaldo to take his life without further ado.

Al lampo dell’armi Handel had produced something extraordinary and unusual for its time: an opera with a plot based on history (albeit fictionalized), not mythology. Giulio Cesare tells the love story of Caesar and Cleopatra, two of the ancient world’s most famous characters, and its original production featured some of the greatest stars of the day, singing unprecedentedly luscious music. It was terrific entertainment.

Curio rushes in to tell Cesare that Achilla’s assassins are in the palace and his life is in danger. When Cesare says he will therefore leave Egypt, “Lidia” sits up to stop him, amazing Cesare by admitting that she’s really Cleopatra. Cesare prepares for war as his enemies close in. Cleopatra, seeing that she too is now in peril, swears to fight Tolomeo as Cesare’s ally.

Text and Translation

Adelaide Adelaide Nacht und Träume Night and Dreams Text by Friedrich von Matthison Translated by Richard Stokes Text by Matthäus von Collin Translated by Richard Wigmore

Einsam wandelt dein Freund im Your friend wanders lonely in the spring garden, Heil’ge Nacht, du sinkest nieder; Holy night, you sink down; Frühlingsgarten, Gently bathed in the magical sweet light Nieder wallen auch die Träume, dreams, too, float down, Mild vom lieblichen Zauberlicht umflossen, That shimmers through swaying boughs in bloom, Wie dein Mondlicht durch die Räume, like your moonlight through space, Das durch wankende Blütenzweige zittert, Adelaide! Durch der Menschen stille Brust. through the silent hearts of men. Adelaide! Die belauschen sie mit Lust; They listen with delight, In the mirroring waves, in the Alpine snows, Rufen, wenn der Tag erwacht: crying out when day awakes: In der spiegelnden Flut, im Schnee der Alpen, In the golden clouds of the dying day, Kehre wieder, heil’ge Nacht! come back, holy night! In des sinkenden Tages Goldgewölken, In the fields of stars your image shines, Holde Träume, kehret wieder! Fair dreams, return! Im Gefilde der Sterne strahlt dein Bildnis, Adelaide! Adelaide! Ständchen Serenade Evening breezes whisper in the tender leaves, Text by Ludwig Rellstab Translated by Richard Wigmore Abendlüfte im zarten Laube flüstern, The silvery bells of May rustle in the grass, Silberglöckchen des Mais im Grase säuseln, Waves murmur and nightingales sing: Leise flehen meine Lieder Softly my songs plead Wellen rauschen und Nachtigallen flöten: Adelaide! Durch die Nacht zu Dir; through the night to you; Adelaide! In den stillen Hain hernieder, down into the silent grove, One day, O miracle! there shall bloom on my grave Liebchen, komm’ zu mir! beloved, come to me! Einst, o Wunder! entblüht auf meinem Grabe A flower from the ashes of my heart; Flüsternd schlanke Wipfel rauschen Slender treetops whisper and rustle Eine Blume der Asche meines Herzens; On every purple leaf shall clearly shimmer: In des Mondes Licht; in the moonlight; Deutlich schimmert auf jedem Purpurblättchen: Adelaide! Des Verräters feindlich Lauschen my darling, do not fear Adelaide! Fürchte, Holde, nicht. that the hostile betrayer will overhear us. Der Tod und das Mädchen Death and the Maiden Text by Matthias Claudius Translated by Richard Wigmore Hörst die Nachtigallen schlagen? Do you not hear the nightingales call? Ach! sie flehen Dich, Ah, they are imploring you; DAS MÄDCHEN THE MAIDEN Mit der Töne süssen Klagen with their sweet, plaintive songs Vorüber,ach,vorüber! Pass by, ah, pass by! Flehen sie für mich. they are imploring for me. Geh, wilder Knochenmann! Away, cruel Death! Sie verstehn des Busens Sehnen, They understand the heart’s yearning, Ich bin noch jung, geh, Lieber! I am still young; leave me, dear one Kennen Liebesschmerz, they know the pain of love; Und rühre mich nicht an. and do not touch me. Rühren mit den Silbertönen with their silvery notes Jedes weiche Herz. they touch every tender heart. DER TOD DEATH Gib deine Hand, du schön und zart Gebilde! Give me your hand, you lovely, tender creature. Lass auch Dir die Brust bewegen, Let your heart, too, be moved, Bin Freund und komme nicht zu strafen. I am your friend, and come not to chastise. Liebchen, höre mich! beloved, hear me! Sei gutes Muts! Ich bin nicht wild, Be of good courage. I am not cruel; Bebend harr’ ich Dir entgegen! Trembling, I await you! Sollst sanft in meinen Armen schlafen! you shall sleep softly in my arms. Komm’, beglücke mich! Come, make me happy!

Du bist die Ruh You are repose Amore in me dipinge: Paint love for me: Text by Friedrich Rückert Translated by Richard Wigmore Il mio pensier si finge My thoughts imagine Le più liete speranze; The most happy hopes, Du bist die Ruh, You are repose E nel desio che così And in the longing which Der Friede mild, and gentle peace. M'empie il petto Fills my bosom Die Sehnsucht du, You are longing Cerco te, chiamo te, spero e sospiro. I seek you, I call you, I hope, and I sigh. Und was sie stillt. and what stills it. Ich weihe dir Full of joy and grief Intorno all'idol mio Around my idol Voll Lust und Schmerz I consecrate to you Text by Giacinto Andrea Cicognini Translated by Katherine McGuire Zur Wohnung hier my eyes and my heart Mein Aug’ und Herz. as a dwelling place. Intorno all'idol mio spirate pur, spirate, Around my idol Aure, Aure soavi e grate, Breathe, merely breathe, Kehr’ ein bei mir, Come in to me E nelle guancie elette Winds sweet and gracious Und schliesse du and softly close Baciatelo per me, And on the favored cheeks Still hinter dir the gate Cortesi, cortesi aurette! Kiss him for me, courtly breezes! Die Pforten zu. behind you. Treib andern Schmerz Drive all other grief Al mio ben, che riposa In my love who rests Aus dieser Brust. from my breast. Su l'ali della quiete, On the wings of peace Voll sei dies Herz Let my heart Grati, grati sogni assistete Pleasant dreams provoke. Von deiner Lust. be full of your joy. E il mio racchiuso ardore And my hidden ardor Svelate gli per me, Reveal to him for me Dies Augenzelt The temple of my eyes O larve, o larve d'amore! O spirits of love. Von deinem Glanz is lit Allein erhellt, by your radiance alone: Pur dicesti, o bocca bella Oh, delightful mouth, at last you have uttered O füll’ es ganz. O, fill it wholly! Text by Anonymous Translated by Nicholas Cornforth

Selve amiche, ombrose piante Friendly woods Pur dicesti, o bocca bella, Oh, delightful mouth, at last you have uttered Text by Anonymous Translated by Pauline Kroger Quel soave e caro sì, That gentle and precious yes, Che fatutto il mio piacer. Upon which all my pleasure is founded. Selve amiche, ombrose piante, Friendly woods, shady plants, Fido albergo del mio core, Loyal shelter for my heart, Per onor di sua facella In his own radiant honour Chiede a voi quest'alma amante this loving soul asks from you Con un bacio Amor t'aprì, Love has opened you with a kiss, Qualche pace al suo dolore. some peace from my grief. Dolce fonte del goder, ah! Sweet foundation of pleasure, ah!

O del mio dolce ardor Of my sweet ardor Pena tiranna Woe unrelenting Text by Raniero de’Calzabigi Translated by Paul Hindemith Text (perhaps) by Nicolas Haym Translated by Han Keat Lim

O del mio dolce ardor Oh, desired object Pena tiranna Woe unrelenting Bramato oggetto, Of my sweet ardor, io sento al core, rules over my heart, L'aura che tu respiri, The air which you breathe, né spero mai and I have no more hope Alfin respiro. At last I breathe. trovar pietà; of finding peace; amor m'affanna Love leaves me breathless, O vunque il guardo io giro, Wherever I turn my glance e il mio dolore and in such troubles Le tue vaghe sembianze Your lovely features in tanti guai my sorrow knows pace non ha. no clemency.

Al lampo dell’armi In the shimmering of arms Text by Nicola Haym Translated by americanbach.org

Al lampo dell'armi quest’alma guerriera In the shimmering of arm, this my warring soul will take vendetta farà. revenge.

Non fia che disarmi la destra guerriera che forza Whatever gives it its strength cannot disarm this fighting hand. le dà.