Cedille Records CDR 90000 049 SONGS OF THE CLASSICAL AGE Patrice Michaels Bedi soprano David Schrader fortepiano 2 DDD Absolutely Digital™ CDR 90000 049 S ONGS OF THE C LASSICAL A GE FRANZ JOSEF HAYDN MARIA THERESIA VON PARADIES 1 She Never Told Her Love.................. (3:10) br Morgenlied eines armen Mannes...........(2:47) 2 Fidelity.................................................... (4:04) WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART 3 Pleasing Pain......................................... (2:18) bs Cantata, K. 619 4 Piercing Eyes......................................... (1:44) “Die ihr des unermesslichen Weltalls”....... (7:32) 5 Sailor’s Song.......................................... (2:25) LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN VINCENZO RIGHINI bt Wonne der Wehmut, Op. 83, No. 1...... (2:11) 6 Placido zeffiretto.................................. (2:26) 7 SOPHIE WESTENHOLZ T’intendo, si, mio cor......................... (1:59) ck Morgenlied............................................. (3:24) 8 Mi lagnerò tacendo..............................(1:37) 9 Or che il cielo a me ti rende............... (3:07) FRANZ SCHUBERT bk Vorrei di te fidarmi.............................. (1:27) cl Frülingssehnsucht from Schwanengesang, D. 957..................... (4:06) CHEVALIER DE SAINT-GEORGES bl L’autre jour à l’ombrage..................... (2:46) PAULINE DUCHAMBGE cm La jalouse................................................ (2:22) NICOLA DALAYRAC FELICE BLANGINI bm Quand le bien-aimé reviendra............ (2:50) cn Il est parti!.............................................. (2:57) FELICE BLANGINI bn MARIA SZYMANOWSKA C’est une misère que nos jeunes gens ...... (3:11) co Ballade.................................................... (3:31) ANNA AMALIA VON SACHSEN-WEIMAR ISABELLA COLBRAN bo Auf dem Land und in der Stadt ........... (2:05) cp Mi lagnerò tacendo............................... (2:08) JOHANN FRIEDRICH REICHARDT MARIA SZYMANOWSKA bp Johanna Sebus....................................... (6:25) cq Se spiegar................................................ (1:38) CORONA SCHRÖTER VINCENZO BELLINI bq Für Männer uns zu plagen..................(1:31) cr Arietta..................................................... (2:42) Patrice Michaels Bedi soprano David Schrader fortepiano TT: (79:34) Patrice Michaels Bedi and The Chicago Classical Recording Foundation would like to thank Dominique-René de Lerma, Shahzore Shah, Nancy Stowe, Barre Seid, and Dorothea Link for their assistance in the realization of this project. Cedille Records is a trademark of The Chicago Classical Recording Founda- tion, a not-for-profit foundation devoted to promoting the finest musi- cians and ensembles in the Chicago area. The Chicago Classical Recording Foun- dation’s activities are supported by grants from individuals, corporations, and foundations, including the Chicago-based WPWR-TV Channel 50 Foundation. 1 SONGS OF THE CLASSICAL AGE “Song . a short metrical composition, whose chamber music. By 1795, with his reputation meaning is conveyed by the combined force established and his works regularly presented, of words and melody.” These words by Mrs. Haydn enjoyed the kind of success that enticed Edmund Wodehouse from an early edition many foreign musicians to remain. Two factors of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musi- led him to curtail his stay in London, leaving cians offer profound simplicity and provocative posterity only a small collection of songs in challenge. The 27 selections in Songs of the English. England’s war with France made it Classical Age represent the era’s range of verse, nearly impossible to engage the Italian sing- melody, and harmony, but they also point to ers upon whom Haydn relied. And as court trends in earlier and later vocal music. Before composer to the Esterházy dynasty, Haydn the Classical period, Medieval Troubadours and was summoned when Prince Paul Anton died a few Renaissance composers excelled at self- unexpectedly. Haydn finished the London con- accompanied vocal music that could transmit cert season of 1795 and returned to Austria, a wide range of poetic sentiment. Composers bringing with him the inspiration to compose of the Baroque era were more interested in cre- Austria’s national anthem and the oratorio The ating cantatas stringing together many short Creation. movements, each one depicting a single affect. At that time, the preferred accompaniment The canzonettas presented here owe their to the voice was lute, organ, or harpsichord existence to a happy circumstance. In Vien- grouped in continuo with viola da gamba or na, Haydn frequently attended salons at the cello. While most households retained the home of the imperial physician. In London, he harpsichord well into the 19th century, the lived near the royal physician, Dr. John Hunter, introduction of the fortepiano was a stunning whose wife, Anne Home Hunter, was renowned innovation for Classical composers and per- for her frequent soirées and Scottish national formers. The variety of color and dynamic pos- verse. Whether high art or not, Haydn found sibility on a fortepiano was entirely new, and it Mrs. Hunter’s homely sentiment and domestic is to this relationship of instrument and voice themes ideal for song settings. In Fidelity, he that we owe our Classical and Romantic recital develops virtuosic solo lines for both keyboard song aesthetic. and voice; in Sailor’s Song, witty repetition of motives prevails; and Pleasing Pain demon- Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809) went to London strates his preoccupation with proportion and for the first time in 1791, earning immediate balance. The opening song in these selections popularity with his operatic, symphonic, and from the Twelve Canzonettas is one of only 2 two texts not attributed to Anne Hunter. She 1841) all found success in the salons and Never Told Her Love is an excerpt from Twelfth theaters of Paris, although none were native Night by William Shakespeare (Act II, scene IV: to that city. Born in Guadaloupe of a black Viola to the Duke). woman and an unmarried white French aristo- crat, Saint-George’s family came to Paris when Vincenzo Righini (1756-1825) wrote opera, he was ten. His first career was as a swordsman sacred and instrumental music, approximately of the highest caliber, but he began to appear 200 songs, and an important book on singing. publicly as a violinist at the age of 25, and Originally a singer in his native Bologna, he composed most of his opus from then until joined an opera troupe in Prague, and wrote the early 1780s. The flamboyant introduction his first stage work in 1776. He became estab- to L’autre jour à l’ombrage (“One Day in the lished as a composer and moved to Vienna Shade”) displays his love of the violin, and the four years later, where he was sought after as melody follows in highly ornamented fashion. a singing teacher. Among his students were Maria Theresia von Paradies and Princess Eliza- Nicola Dalayrac was befriended by the Comte beth of Württemberg. In 1787, he became the d’Artois and left his native Muret in 1781 against first Italian-born Kapellmeister at the electoral the wishes of his father. Although written for the court in Mainz. In 1793, he accepted offers to comic opera Nina, Quand le bien-aimé revi- act as Kapellmeister and director of the Italian endra (“When one’s Beloved Returns”) is more Opera in Berlin, working with J.F. Reichardt. The song than aria, and its mixed meter suggests group of songs presented here is solid proof earlier French dance forms. of his stature as a composer for voice. Or che il cielo (“Now that Heaven”), for example, could Felice Blangini left Turin for Paris in 1781 to easily be taken for Mozart (who was born five escape political unrest. C’est une misère que nos days after Righini) in its lyricism, architecture, jeunes gens (“It’s a Misery — Our Young Men!”) and beauty of accompaniment. Other songs in highlights Blangini’s comedic flair. Both this song this group display brilliant handling of simple and Il est parti! (“He is Gone”), included in the forms such as the A-B-A-Coda of Placido zef- next French group, demonstrate his penchant firetto (“Gentle Zephyr”) and the playful, slight- for moving a melody from major to minor and ly extended structure of Vorrei di te fidarmi (“I back again. Would Like to Have Faith in You”). Anna Amalia von Sachsen-Weimar (1739-1807), Chevalier Joseph Boulogne Saint-Georges niece of Frederick the Great, was married at (1749-1799), Nicola Dalayrac (1753-1809), and sixteen. By the time she was eighteen, she had Giuseppe Marco Maria Felice Blangini (1781- become the mother of two sons, a widow, and the regent of her duchy. A student of piano and 3 composition, she journeyed to Italy from 1778- Maria Theresia von Paradies (1759-1824) was a 1780, returning to Weimar with a great apprecia- prodigy of Vienna court life, born to the impe- tion for singing. She established museums and rial court secretary, and blind from childhood. theaters, and her patronage encouraged Johann She studied with, among others, Salieri and Wilhelm von Goethe and many other artists. In Righini, became an avid touring performer at 1773, she wrote the singspiel Erwin und Elmire the keyboard, and befriended Mozart, who wrote from which Auf dem Land und in der Stadt (“In the Piano Concerto K. 456 for her. Morgenlied the Country or the City”) is taken. Her composi- eines armen Mannes (“Morning Song of a Poor tions reflect the rhythmic and harmonic charac- Man”), on a text of Johann Timotheus Hermes, teristics of the Baroque masters. explores the plight of the commoner. Paradies employs the poetry to create some of the most Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1752-1814) was vivid text painting in songs of this era. influential as a literary critic, journalist, violinist, composer, and Kapellmeister to Frederick the The last five entries Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Great. He was particularly active in developing (1756-1795) made into his thematic catalogue liederspiel, which implies a song of dramatic are framed by two Masonic cantatas. In July of or theatrical character. His extended setting 1791: “a little German cantata for voice and key- of the ballad Johanna Sebus, chosen from a board (K.