VAN VLECK HOUSE & GARDENS Presents An Afternoon of Music from Iceland, Finland, and Russia Sunday, 2:00pm March 8, 2020

Ellen Lang, mezzo-soprano Jane Romanos, narrator David Witten, piano

ICELANDIC SONGS

KVELD Evening Beautiful still is the peaceful evening Air and sea caress and kiss

Gentle breezes sing in the ear QuickeningSoftly flame thethe waves,fires of the heaven rays of evening swiftly weave the changing colors -scoured Snaefell glacier arises with every glittering SlowlyThen, like the a sun dream, nears the the fire bridal wave billow, from the depths arise beams like hope Beauty calls to all we love, to all we long for. Before long, their lips will meet . Quietly streaming from hidden springs theFJOLA heart’s The innermostViolet secrets come

Your beauty I’ll never forget Wondrous blue violet mine

Flower so dear to my heart YourROA, smileROA RAMBIN so pure andHush, so Hushabye chaste.

She sat with a baby in her lap Sherocked sang the so baby sad a i nsong, sorrow the maid in the east Hushabye

They are coming to help TheySat with come her each babe day in herto take lap life SangRocked the the maid babe in inthe sorrow east this. sad song

MADUR HEFUR NU One has landed inter

OneIf it goes has landed badly or in notmore at orall less the same as this w thenand managed we’ll work to atdo it much in the better. spring. , . If it doesn’t work out in the spring nor in the summerwinter, then we’ll be lucky in the autumn CERTAINLY. One has landed in more or less the same as this and managed to do much, much better ICELANDIC SONGS The Fisherman and the Fish, Op. 41 – Nikolai Nikolaievich Tcherepnin This work is based on Alexander Sergeievich

Pushkin’s 1835 fairy tale of the same name. A fisherman stumbles upon a magical fish whoTc can both speak and grant wishes. As each wish comes true, the fisherman’salternating wifewith becomes the text of increasingly the greedy. Finally,is she asks for too much, and it all disappears. then herepnin’s piano score is divided into six distinct movements, Pushkin poem. Th musical composition was completed before 1915, and Tcherepnin published an orchestral version in 1921. Later, in

1932, some enterprising choreographers and dancers created a ballet with this music, and it was performed in New York and lineChicago. and glinting in the sunl Tcherepnin’s achievement is remarkable. One can hear the dropline plunging into the water, the fish struggling on theal ight, the fisherman’s wife’s chattering complaints, the Imperial guards marching about, and so on. But beyond the more literal depictions, theRobert listener also gains access to psychological profiles enhanced by the music. Music phrases illuminate the character of the three “protagonists” and give them an emotional dimension that adds to the literary and poetic dimensions, not unlike what Schumann achieved in the preludes and postludes of his best song cycles. SIBELIUS SONGS VÅREN FLYKTAR HASTIGT Spring is flying

Spring swiftly flies, swifter still flies summer. TheAutumn boy answers:stays a long Still time, in fall winter days still longer. Soon, you pretty cheeks, shall you fade and never bloom again. Quick enough spring will fly away, areand glad pretty springtime cheeks fade. memories, still in winter days lasts summers harvests.

SÄF,So, let SÄF, us make SUSA love,Little and reeds, kiss rustle one another! Reeds, reeds, rustle

SheWaves, shrieked waves, like foam a wing- ThatOh, tell was me last where Spring, young when Ingalill all was has green gone wounded bird when she sank from sight They took her property and her young lover They stuck with thorns the apple of her eye They shamed her at Ostanalid, she took it so badly So, sing, little waves, and weep Reeds,They cast reeds, smut rustle into the Waves, lily’s flowdew . . .

FLICKAN KOM IFRAN SIN ALSKLINGS MOTE The Tryst dearest?” The maiden comes home from her lovers’ tryst, comes with reddened fingers. Says her mother: “why are your fingers red,

The girl answers: “I was picking roses and a thorn pricked my finger” AgainShe answers: the maiden “I was came ea home, with red lips Says her mother: “why are your lips so red, my love?” ting berries, and the juices stained my mouth” The maiden came home with pale cheeks “Whyand cut are these you wordsso pale, into my it daughter?”: ‘ The girl answers: “ready my grave, mother, and place a cross over it by her lover’s falsehood.’” Once she came with crimson fingers, reddened under her lover’s fingers. Then she came with red lips, bruised under her lover’s lips. Finally, she came home with white cheeks, made ashen VAR DET EN DRÖM? Was it a dream?

Was it a dream that, long ago, I was yo ur heart’s true mate? Iyour think look of it so as shy a muted and tender, song whose strings still vibrate I remember the torn rose I gave you,

I remember the unshed tear glistening. flowers of spring Was it all a dream? A dream like the violet’s life, brief as the whose colors quickly fade away to make room for new. How many nights I hear your voice, which swells my tears. Hide deep this memory in your breast.======It was your best dream.

COMPOSERS

Composer and percussionist Gunnar Reynir Sveinsson is the first and

primary, Icelandic composer of jazz. His first influence was during the American occupation of his homeland during World War II, where he received “two yards of jazz, beginningrecords from his ancareer Americ withan the guitarist KK Sexte whot and had play previouslying played with Benny Goodman’s orchestra and led the dance orchestra at the American soldiers’ most popular dance hall in Reykjavík.” ThreePerhaps years because after ofgraduating this, Gunnar became a vibraphonist percussion, then at thefor nineState years University in the InstituteIceland Symphony of Sonology Orchestra.. After returning His first to formal musical education was at the Reykjavík College of Music. in 1961, he traveled to Amsterdam to continue his studies at the Conservatory his native country, Gunnar worked as a jazz musician and composer in Reykjavík and as a teacher at the New School of Music. country’sAlthough geographical jazz is isolation, relatively it newwas notto Iceland, until the the late country’s vocal music is an old tradition that grew from the Viking recitation of folk poetry and eventually moved into the Christian church and sacred plainsong in the medieval era. Due to the 35 19th century that music blossomed in Iceland and choral singing became a favorite pastime. By 1990 there were over 4,000 members in the Landsamband blandaoðra kóra [Federation of Mixed Choirs, LBK, founded in 1938], with member choirs today. azz clubs. Preferring to write music for a primarily functional purpose, Gunnar Reynir Sveinsson does not appear on the Icelandic popular music scene; instead his compositions are foremost for amateur choirs, theater, church, and j Third- Gunnar spiritutilized, his varied musical education in compositions that, while. eclectic, show a marked jazz influence from his own performance history along with elements of his classical conservatory training. “He has composed many works in the t the universe,Stream not atwhere Iceland he aloneuses classical,” says Sveinsson. music and jazz as a starting point Icelandic folk music often appears in his oeuvre, particularly in his compositions for======choirs. “If you start at the age of nine with jazz, then you are international. I look a Nikolai Nikolayevich Tcherepnin was born to a well-known and wealthy physician. of artists including and ed a law degree, The elder Nikolai moved in- elite circles Korsakov and a degreeFyodor in pian Dostoyevskyo under K.K. FanModest- Mussorgsky. At his father's insistence, Nikolai earn though during this time he composed steadily. In 1898, he earned a degree in composition under Nikolai Rimsky ch -year tenure, h Arkh. His talents and high family Sergei status Prokofiev earned, Aleksandrhim a job as Gauk the, orchestralYuri Shaporinteacher at and the Court Chapel in 1899.. For six years he taught there before returning to the St. Petersburg Conservatory to tea there. During his 13 e taught many notable students, including the Lazare Saminsky, the , the and well conductingIn 1902 athe the became the regular conductore, where he of the Russian Symphony Concerts and later made-Korsakov guest appearances's opera The with Russian Musical. He Societywas also involvedMoscow with Philharmonic the Kruzhok Society sovremennoySiloti muzïki Concerts Ivan Vasilenko’s Historic Concerts as the Mir iskusstva Mariinsky Theatr directed the Paris premiere of Nikolai Rimsky Golden Cockerel (Contemporary Music ballet Circle) Le and Pavillon worked d'Armide with . Two years later, he(‘World of Art’) movement. of 's legendary Ballets Russes. He In 1907, during hisof timethe Ballets at the RussesConservatory, in Berlin he, wrote possibly, Paris his, most famous, and the work, Royal the Opera House at Garden i conducted the ballet at the premiere performance Sergei Diaghilev theconducted performances. At this post, he. Monte Carlo Rome Covent n London. In addition to his professorship[6] and his commitments with the Ballet, in 1908, he became conductor at Mariinsky Theatre Tbilisi, the capital of the . Following the Bolshevik takeoverFrom 1905 of toGeorgia 1917, he was principal of the Paris conservatory and lived thereof St. Petersburg,for the rest ofwhere his life. he Wtaughthile in conducting. France, he Inworked 1918 hewith became Anna Pavlovadirector of the National Conservatory of Democratic Republic of Georgia , but abandoned his concertin 1921, c he moved to and her ballet troupe as composer and conductor. His and son made is concert tours around Alexander Europe and Tcherepnin the United. States areer in 1933======because of a deterioration in his hearing. In 1925 he founded the Russian Conservatory in Paris and served as its director for a number of years composer and pianist Tómasson, Jónas, ege , . conductor. Icelandic composer, teacher, and conductor studied with J. Thorárinsson at the Reykjavík Coll . of Music ======and with Ton de Leeuw Jos Kunst and Leon Ortel in Amsterdam He was active in ísafjördur as a composer, teacher, and Jean Sibelius early- periods. wanted to be a violinist, he later recognized that he hadn’t started on that path at a young enough age, so was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and modern While as a young man, he passionately helped Finland develop a national identity turned to composing. He is widely recognized as his country's greatest national composer epic, and,the Kalevala through. his music, is often credited with having during its struggle for independence fromHis Russia. best- Many of his works were Finlandiainspired , theby nature, Karelia Nordic Suite, Valse mythology, triste, theand the Finnish Kullervo, and The Swan of Tuonela the LemminkäinenHe composed Suite seven symphonies and more is than 100 tone poems or songs. known compositions are aViolin Concerto, the choral symphony (from ). His Second Symphony the most popular and most frequently recordedspan of the his entirety symphonies, of his artistic After the seven symphonies and violin concerto, Sibelius's 13 symphonic poems are his most important works. The symphonic poems display the composer's fascination with nature and Finnish mythology, and career (the first was composed in 1892, while the last appeared in 1925), H He was also influenced by Wagner, particularly in Busoni andints Anton of Tchaikovsky's Bruckner. H music are particularly were largely evident inspired in early by works. such as his First Symphony and his Violin Concerto. -year-old Aino while composing his opera. MoreThe lasting couple influences had six daughters. included Ferruccio He died at brain is tone poems Liszt He married 17 ======studying music in Helsinki in the autumn of 1888, his home in Ainola, of a hemorrhage at age 91.