As this horrible year draws to an end, Johannes Brahms Der Abend op 64/2 from the part song set Drei Quartette published in 1874, to a poem by Friedrich von Schiller. from 1776. The "strahlende Gott", the radiant sun, is sinking The piano plays one note at a time, like a heavy tread. The fields are parched, the horses pulling a cart are weary. As the sun sinks,so does the spirit. Then a sudden vision :"Siehe, wer aus des Meers krystallner Woge" Almost in unison the four voices spring to life, decorating the word "kristallner" so it shines. The pace quickens. "Rascher fliegen der Rosse", as if the horses sense refreshment. The godly Thetys beckons. Thetys was a Titan, the wild tribe who preceded the Greek Gods. Her signifier is water: the source of life, replenishing the parched (hence the reference to dried fields). She was mother of the Oceanides, the spirits of the Oceans whose tides control the earth. The four voices, like horses, are energized, their lines well differentiated. The piano part prances, too. Suddenly, "Stille halten die Rosse, Trinken die kühlende Flut." Now,
"An dem Himmel herauf mit leisen Schritten
Kommt die duftende Nacht; ihr folgt die süße
Liebe. Ruhet und liebet!
Phöbus, der liebende, ruht."
Up in the heavens, night descends quietly, the smells of the night are fragrant, damp, refreshing. "Ruhet und Liebet!" repeated twice, for emphasis. Beloved Phoebus (Apollo, the sun) rests and loves. What is Der Abend about? Perhaps it's about sleep, offering an escape from toil. Yet it could also be about Death, the sleep from which you don't wake because you've gone on further. About 20 years ago I went to the funeral of someone my own age who died young after a long struggle. I'll swear the song was being played! Tactfully, I tried to ask. "Joni Mitchell" said someone. This year, as the world seems to be hurtling, hell bent, towards Armageddon, it's tempting to think on Lethe. But better to stay, struggle and fight back.
You can tell a historian, someone quipped, because they mourn the loss of the library at Alexandria. You can tell a true Lieder fan, then, that they follow the news and think of Schubert Die Götter Greichenlands.
Sch¡ne Welt, wo bist du ? Kehre weider, Holdes Blütenalter der Natur ! Ach, nur in dem Feeland der Lieder Lebt noch dein fabelhafte Spur. Ausgestorben trauert das Gefilde, Keine Gootheit zieht sich meinem blick Ach, von jenem lebenwarmen Bilde, Blieb der Schatten nur zurück
(Beautiful world ! Come back, dear ancient blossoming Nature, yet in the Fairyland of Lieder, live still traces of your glory. the fields mourn, as if dead, no Godliness meets my gaze, Ah, of the life-warmed prospect only shadows return)
Above a card of Schiller's deathbed, with the inscription Denn er war Unser" meaning, "Then, he was ours" In this present world of uncivilized fundamentalism and plain mean spirited nastiness, where are Schiller's ideals ? That's why I retreat to Lieder, and a finer world of idealism.
Franz Schubert's Anti Father's Day Rant ? Leichenphantasie D7 (Corpse Fantasy) to a luridly Gothic poem by Schiller :
Mit erstorb'nem Scheinen Steht der Mond auf totenstillen Hainen Seufzend streicht der Nachtgeist durch die Luft Nebelwolken trauern,
Sterne trauern
Bleich herab, wie Lampen in der Gruft.
Gleich Gespenstern, stumm und hohl und hager, Zieht in schwarzem Totenpompe dort Ein Gewimmel nach dem Leichenlager Unterm Schauerflor der Grabnacht fort.
(In dying light, the moon rises over deathly-silent groves, ghostly
night-spirit's wails float through the air. Dense mists mourn, stars
pale in sorrow like lamps descending into a tomb. Ghosts, silent,
hollow and gaunt. watch the deathly march of mourners behind the coffin draped in mourning crepe for the night burial) Schubert's setting is slow and deliberate, imitating the slow tread of the pall bearers, Yet every now and then, the vocal lines leaps upward, like a scream.
Unsteadily walking on crutches an old man follows the cortege. In the silence, he hears the word "Father" come from his dead son's mouth. "Son" ! he thinks in his heart. Twice, the line Eiskalt, eiskalt liegt er hier im Tuche (Ice cold, ice cold, he lies here in his shroud) reminding us that the son is dead. The father reminisces about his son's youthful promise.
Mutig sprang er im Gewühle der Menschen,Wie ein jugendlich Reh. The song grabbed life with the energy of a roebuck, as proud as a stallion. Sparkling figures in the piano part suggest the joy this herrlichen Jungen gets from being alive. Yet something's not quite right .Klagen ertränkt' er im Goldener Reben,
Schmerzen verhüpft' er im wirbelnden Tanz. Schubert decorates the word "Goldener" but why does a lad like that need to drown his sorrows ? But now he's Gramentbundner, in Walhallas Ruh!, buried under grass, in Valhalla's Rest. Schubert infuses the word Valhalla so it sparkles., and the word "Ruh! ends in sudden silence.
Wilder, darker chords remind us that the boy, his father and friends will meet no more in life Wiedersehn dort an Edens Tor! (to meet again at the gates of Eden) Nimmer gibt das Grab zurück. What the grave takes it does not give back.
Yet there's more to this song than 19th century death fantasy. Why is the young man being buried at night ? and with no mention of Christian rites ? Death's no fun, but why the air of horrified doom ? Did the lad kill himself, the ultimate mortal sin There are hints in the text about chasing girls, and also, possibly something less publicly acceptable. Da wir trunken um einander rollten,
Lippen schwiegen, und das Auge sprach (then we drank and rolled about together, lips silent but eyes speaking) Maybe that's why the father is so shattered. Even if the hint of high jinks is non sexual, the implication is that the son is reproaching his father from beyond the grave. Schubert was only 14 when he wrote this song,. It's 1811, his opus 7. Thousands of teenagers before and since have rebelled, and admonished their parents by doing themselves in. "You'll be sorry when I'm gone". But they don't get a chance to retract. Maybe the teenaged Schubert, who scrapped with his Dad, identified with the boy. Schiller's poem, on the other hand, raises other issues.
I've heard two exceptionally intelligent performances of this long and difficult song. Goerne sang it as part of a programme about father/son conflicts. Prégardien included it on his disc of Schiller settings. It's part of a series of settings of Goethe, Schiller and other poets, and essential listening. Both Goerne and Prégardien have done it at the Wigmore Hall.
Still only September but lots happening at the Wigmore Hall, covered by Opera Today. HERE's a link to the Schiller songs programme devised by Graham Johnson featuring Christopher Maltman. And HERE's a link to the fascinating Lawrence Zazzo recital. It "amply demonstrated his declared intention to “push the envelope in terms of what countertenors can do” not just in terms of “different repertoire or singing higher, but showing that you can give a rounded performance that's acceptable on all different levels”.
All over the business standards are spiralling downwards to suit a new market that thinks in dumbed down soundbites. It's creeping in everywhere, and probably unstoppable. But some will hold out !
While the whole music industry seems to be spiralling dementedly downmarket, the Wigmore Hall keeps standards extremely high. This Opening Concert of the new season was devoted to songs to texts by Friedrich von Schiller, and not just the most popular. Goethe gets more musical settings than any other poet because his idiom lends itself naturally to song. Schiller, on the other hand, wrote texts that read well on the page but don't necessarily "sing". All the more reason, then, to cherish the courage behind this concert. (photo : Schiller's statue in Stuttgart, Andreas Praefcke)
This concert, Friedrich von Schiller - Ein Leben in Liedern, was organized at very short notice. Soile Isokoski had originally been scheduled to sing and to judge the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition, but she was indisposed. The programme was very far from Isokoski's usual repertoire, but so well put together that it was satisfying compensation. It bears the hallmark of Graham Johnson, whose experience in designing good programmes is legendary. Johnson's knowledge of this repertoire is equalled by few (Richard Stokes and Richard Wigmore excepted). Go to the Hyperion Records websiteand read Johnson's programme notes for the 37 disc set of Schubert songs. This is what programme note writing should be, stimulating an erudite audience like that at the Wigmore Hall. Indeed, audiences completely new to the genre are even more badly served by superficial, clichéd work, devoid of the analysis and contextual connections that make programme notes worth reading in the first place. The Wigmore Hall gives medals for services to Lieder. Why not Graham Johnson?
How daring to place not one but several long strophic ballads together! Schiller's poetry isn't often lyrical in the way that Goethe's is, so musical settings tend towards declamatory and need to be livened up by good performance or they can descend into dull. Luckily many good singers rise to the challenge. Fischer-Dieskau, Matthias Goerne, Wolfgang Holzmair and Christoph Prégardien had/have them in their repertoire. There were two stunning Die BürgschaftD246 at the Wigmore Hall (Holzmair and Prégardien) a while back, about a year apart, both performed so vividly the whole song became a dramatic monologue. Quite an achievement for a 20 minute song where the "characters" as such are fairly stylized Classical Heroes.
Fortunately Christopher Maltman has these songs in his repertoire too and has worked so often with Graham Johnson. These Schiller songs suit Maltman's voice and style, for they benefit from rich-toned gravitas. In Der Kampf D594 Maltman declaims dramatically, so the song sounds like a vignette from a much larger theatrical piece. Very Schiller, more unusual for Schubert. Maltman carefully negotiates the tricky "Bewundert still mein heldenmütiges Entsagen, und grossmutvoll beschliesst sie meinen Lohn.....". If strain appears later in the next strophe, Maltman's earned his reward.
Tellingly, Johnson quotes Carlyle in his programme notes. Schiller, said Thomas Carlyle, was "too elevated, too regular and sustained in his elevation to be altogether natural". Hence Johnson adds a few songs which lend themselves to earthly lyricism. An den Frühling (D587), Das Geheimnis (D793) and Dithyrambe (D801) bring out the gentler Schiller, and give Maltman a chance to exercise softer, warmer colours. These more "Schubertian" songs allow Johnson to play with great, expressive verve.
Schumann set very little Schiller, but it was interesting that Johnson included Schumann's Der Handschuh op 87 (1850). This is interesting because it dates from the period when Schumann was experimenting with theatrical music, like Genoveva op 81 (of which there's much on this site) and Scenes from Goethe's Faust. Schiller's poem presents a scene of striking dramatic possibilities. Like a Roman Emperor, King Francis 1 is entertaining his court to a gory spectacle where lions, tigers and leopards rip each other apart. A lady drops her glove into the fray to taunt her lover. He gets the glove back but dumps the lady. The drama is in the situation, rather than in the personalities, so Schumann sets it as a decorative story, which Maltman and Johnson tell without too much savagery.
An interesting sub-theme flows through this programme: the unsentimental breaking of bonds. The protagonist in Der Kampfhas pledged to some heinous crime by the one he loves. The hero in Der Handschuh learns that his lover wants him dead. In Die Bürgschaft, a man called Moros tries to assassinate the king although he's due to marry his sister off the following day, Oddly enough the King lets him go home, but Moro's friend must be crucified if Moro doesn't come back in time. Cue for glorious dramatic effects in the text, storms, floods, brigands, all of which Moro defeats arriving just as his friend is about to die. Even more oddly, the king decides that all three should henceforth be friends. Will Moros suddenly embrace the tyrant? Why schedule an assasination with a wedding? Logic doesn't count in melodrama. This time, "meaning" in Lieder means meta-meaning, so as long as twenty steady strophes are delivered with panache, the ballad works.
All this summer, we've had Proms, operas and orchestral performances influenced by Alpine imagery and the freedom and danger mountains evoke. Our debt to Schiller's Wilhelm Tell is far reaching. Johnson and Maltman performed Schumann's Des Buben Schützenlied together with three settings by Franz Liszt, Der Fischerknabe, Der Hirt and Der Alpenjäger. Johnson makes a good point about Schiller's political views and Schubert's friend Johann Senn who was exiled from Vienna. The Metternich police state had no hold on Schumann and Liszt (or on Rossini or Catalani), so they can indulge in songs of lyrical grace, untroubled by the darker side of what Tell symbolized. At times the tessitura is high for Maltman ("im Paradies" in Der Fischerknabe) but this enhanced to the sense of danger that runs through Schiller's play. Johnson played so evocatively in the Liszt songs that at times I thought of Edvard Grieg.
