On the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Dresden - Dresdner Requiem - Rudolf Mauersbeger

Dresden Kreuzchor in the ruins of the Kreuzkirche, August 1945 (Bundesarchiv)

As dawn broke seventy-five years ago, the people of the City of Dresden woke to scenes of unimaginable destruction.  On 13th-15th February 1945, 1300 British and American bombers unleashed some 4000 tons of incendiary bombs on the City of Dresden.  Tens of thousands were killed outright, hundred of thousands more displaced, their lives changed forever.  Though the city was a transport hub, its destruction wasn't simply strategic. Its annihilation was symbolic. Saxony represented German culture at its finest, not just Dresden alone but Leipzig, Meissen, and the  wider region. Architectural treasures, literature, history and music. Ultimately it wasn't just Dresden that suffered but world heritage. Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) was a Dresdner, during the Thirty Years War, protected by the Court of Saxony.  Bach lived and worked in Leipzig : not for nothing that he was championed by Mendelssohn, who conducted the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and by Robert Schumann, born in Zwickau.  Wagner was born in Leipzig and found early fame in Dresden. Richard Strauss was remembering the opera house and the Staatskapelle Dresden in his Metamorphosen. Many things we should not forget, but we remebering Dresden makes us value so much of what has been lost, not to be retrieved.

The number of first hand witnesses is shrinking fast. Peter Schreier died at Christmas.  During the war years, the boys were safe in lodgings outside the city but were, understandably, frightened. In December 1944, Rudolf Mauersberger (1889-1971), for decades the Kreuzkantor of the Dresdner Kreuzchor, wrote his Weihnachtszyklus so they could sing and cheer themselves up. Please read my article about Schreier and his importance in the continuation of vocal traditions which emphasize emotional and spiritual engagement : always more challenging, intellectually, than "market forces". Rudolf Mauersberger's Dresdner Requiem RMWV 10, 1947 revised 1961.  Mauersberger (1889-1971) was, for decades, a driving force behind the Dresdner Kreuzchor, deeply immersed in its musical heritage, so the Requiem is a heartfelt cry of anguish. I've been planning to write about it for years, but it's too painful, but maybe now I must confront it.  There are clips of Schreier singing the part in 1949 (see below) but the best known full recording was made in the Lukaskirche in October 1994, Matthias Jung conducting the Dresdner Kreuzchor.  The orchestration is deliberately spartan, in the Lutheran tradition, with organ and celeste and percussion (bells sounds, knocking wooden sounds, drum rolls), restrained trumpet and winds.. It was issued to mark the 50th anniversary of the bombings, with a dedication written by Roman Herzog, the President of the Bundesrepublik Deutschland.

Introducing the Dresdner Requiem is Mauerberger's Wie liegt die Stadt so wüst RMWV 4/1,part of the Chorzyklus Dresden, first perfomed in the bombed out ruins of theKreuzkirche in August 1945- see photo above, where the audience is standing, wrapped in heavy coats. "How lonely sits the city that was full of people.....From on high He sent fire into my bones He made it descend. Is this city, which was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth? "  On this disc, it's followed by a brief sound recording of the great bells of the Kreuzkirche ringing in their glory. Heard together, they're very moving.  The Dresdner Requiem proper starts in a relatively conventioibal liturgy - an introit, antiphon, psalm and antiphon, but the use of three choirs, one at the altar, another "echo choir", at a distance, and a third Hauptchor (tutti) for deeper resonance gives the piece spatial aspects which intensify meaning. Interplay is significant, too, between larger and small sub groups, and the plaintive alto soloist, between older and younger singers, suggesting constant change and spiritual searching.  In the Kyrie, the choirs call en masse for mercy but the Epistel introduces a more personal theme : "I heard a voice from Heaven saying.....Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord....that they might rise from their labours", echoed by the Graduale, where the younger, more ethereal voices ring out in their purity.

The Transitory marks even sterner stuff. "Es ist ein Kurz und mühselig Ding um unser Leben".  Our names will be forgotten  with the passing of time and no-one will remember anything we did, Our lives will blow over like the last vestige of a cloud...thus he who comes to his grave, comes not from it again.....Therefore I will not restrain my mouth, I will speak in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.....you will seek me, but I shall not be".  No maudlin comfort here but something infinitely tougher.  The Altarchor and Echochor offer a measure of relief, but first one must deal with grim reality.  In the brief Tod, the choirs  proclaim "Wer will Gott lehren, der auch die Hohen, richtet !". some die at ease, some in bitterness, but both turn to dust, consumed by worms. this is the context of the Evangelium, "Ich bin die Auferstehung und das Leben" the belief that conquers fear even in the flames of the Dies Irae.  Thus "nach dir streck' ich die Hände, zum Zerknirschten, Herr, dich Wende, o gib mir ein selig Ende!" and the peace that follows.  Yet the full force of retribution is yet to come. The section "Der Herr hat seine Hand gewendet", its portent fortified by percussion and brass, is particularly powerful,, its text is dramatically vivid : God has given full vent to his wrath and consumed by the foundations of a great city. Its towers are destroyed, the people crushed, selling treasures for food. Mankind offers nothing : only faith. does. For those who lived through Dresden and many other horrors, such images would have been all too real.

The intricate garland of  prayers, Sanctuses, hosannas and chorales which follow, build up gradually to a vision of divine redemption,  all the more glorious because they have been won after brutal struggle.  In the Vorspel and Chorale the congregation joins the choirs, all singing "Mit Jubelklang, mit instrumenten schön auf Chören ohne Zahl", the percussion ringing like muted church bells.  The Agnus Dei is heartfelt : faith isn't easy, it's achieved from deep within.  In the De profoundis the alto solo sings almost alone, the choirs hushed behind him. If God can hear this fragile voice, God can hear all.  The choirs and congregation join again for the finale Chorale,the organ leading. At last "Lass sie ruhen in Freiden. Amen". Not triumphant, not cocky but humble and sincere.  

Peter Schreier dies at Christmas

Announced a few minutes ago in Dresden, the death of Peter Schreier after a long illness, aged 84. It is particularly ironic that he died on Christmas Day.  His Bach and Heinrich Schütz are of course basic fare this time of year, but he also loved singing more informal Weihnachtslieder and folk songs and used to do Christmas specials on German TV.  He took his Christmas seriously ! And now, perhaps, he's with the angels and with those who shaped the musical culture that shaped him. 

Born into a musical family in Meissen in July 1935, Schreier was singing at a very young age. Aged 8, he appeared on stage as one of the Three Boys in Die Zauberflöte.  Aged 10, he joined the Dresdner Kreuzchor. The city had been destroyed in the firebombing of February 1945, so the boys lived in basements. Butr so did everyone else. The Kappellmeister was Rudolf Mauersberger, a composer as well as conductor. Please read HERE about Mauersberger's Weihnachtszyklus  written in Decemeber 1944 to cheer the boys up in wartime.  It celebrates Christmas from the perspective of children. It's not yet another telling of the Bible story, which the choristers sang about all year round. Instead, it describes the Dresden Striezelmarkt, or Christmas fair, and the simple folk toys that children marvelled at before Christmas was commercialized. We can hear bells, cuckoo calls, and rhythms suggesting the movement of mechanical toys.

In response to the horrors of war, and the millions killed, Mauersberger wrote his Dresdner Requiem, first performed in the bombed out Frauenkirche, with the key alto part written specially for Schreier.  By spooky coincidence, that's what I've been listening to this season rather than regular Christmas fare.  This piece is closely connected with Schreier and the traditions he came from. It's about the mass deaths of millions in barbaric world conflict. The alto part seems vulnerable, but its purity shines out, a message of strength under desperate conditions. (I'll write more soon).  Mauersberger (1889-1971) shaped Schreier's career, supporting him in his transition to tenor after his voice broke.

Perhaps that bedrock is why Schreier's Bach, Schütz and so  much else are so transcedent that they are almost divine. There are few Evangelists quite as intense and committed as Schreier's. He's not  bland, but totally earnest.  The message in these works is much greater than picture-book pretty.  He brought the same passion to his Mozart, Weber (the finest Max, a character torn between good and weakness). Wagner (truly demonic Mime) and much else. Even Janáček. That same commitment shaped his Lieder singing : always, foremost, meaning expressed through sound and nuance.  Because he cared so much about Lieder as communication, he could draw new insights no matter how often he sang something. Lieder is an inward, individual art, miss that and you miss the point.  His Schubert and Schumann are benchmarks, but he also championed other less well known composers. Schreier's Lieder, with its intelligence and sensitivity, shaped my entire listening career. Losing him is like losing a father figure. 

Schreier was a much loved regular at the Wigmore Hall for many years. At his farewell concert in 2003, pretty much the whole audience got up to greet him in the Green Room. The place was packed, but he noticed, behind all the crowds, a frail old lady who looked about 90 and walked with sticks.  Immediately he rushed up to her and led her in, sitting her in a seat beside him. "Thank you, dearest X, you have come from so far to see me!" he said, almost tears in his eyes. "For you, my boy (!) " she said, "I would travel any distance to see you again". All in German : I don't know the background, but the sincerity of feeling they had for each other was obvious.  That is the sort of person Schreier was.  He cared about things he believed in. Wildly successful and a fighter, but not a showbiz creation, Schreier was an artist of integrity, a man for whom sincerity and commitment were principles of faith.  

Peter Schreier 80th Birthday bargain box set

Today is Peter Schreier's 80th birthday. What an eventful life he's lived. His first professional engagement came at the age of 7 when he sang one of the child spirits in The Magic Flute. He went on to become the star of the Dresdner Kreuzchor at a period when music meant a lot in war-ravaged Dresden. What must it have been like, in those difficult times, and in the early years of the GDR, to listen to the pure, clear voices of this choir ring out, like angels? Read my piece on the Mauseberger Weihnachtszyklus, written for Christmas 1945 HERE

Schreier was the foremost tenor in the GDR in his era, singing almost the entire repertoire for his voice type, from opera, to baroque, to Lieder, to folk song and 20th century composers.  He even sang Benjamin Britten! East Germany was isolated from the commercial pressures in the west, and from the boom industry in recordings that fuelled popular taste, so in many ways, GDR music harked back to earlier traditions. Schreier's singing was, in any case, so pure and ardent that it transcended borders. He worked a lot in the west, often with Fischer-Dieskau and others.  What I love about Schreier's singing is the way he was so ardent: he was so passionate about what he sang. He reached emotional depths which could be unsettling, though his technical control was always refined and elegant. For me, this is the soul of Lieder, and the reason I'm not impressed by voices that are pretty but facile, however fashionable they might be.

To mark Schreier's 80 th birthday, the German website www.jpc.de is offering an 8 CD box set with an additional DVD for Euro 29.99  An amazing bargain, even if you've treasured the original Berlin Classics releases from way back when. More details here.

Lieder for Halloween - Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelsson's Halloween Lieder, Hexenlied to a poem by Ludwig Hõlty.

Ein schwarzer Bock, Ein Besenstock, 
Die Ofengabel, der Wocken,
Reißt uns geschwind, Wie Blitz und Wind, 
Durch sausende Lüfte zum Brocken! 
Um Beelzebub Tanzt unser Trupp
Und küßt ihm die kralligen Hände! 
Ein Geisterschwarm Faßt uns beim Arm
 Und schwinget im Tanzen die Brände!

(Armed with pitchforks, broomsticks, and black goats the witches fly through a ragingb thunderstorm up high to the mountain heath of Brocken. They dance round Beelzebub and kiss his cloven hoofs. Witches and the ghosts dance together waving firebrands, )

Strictly speaking the song refers to Walpurgisnacht, the night before May 1st when the witches of the world converge on Brocken mountain to worship the devil in an orgy. Hence the original title of the poem "Anderes Maienlied", an alternative to the usual Mailieds which focus on the coming of spring, purity, innocence, maidens with flowers etc. Witches party, too.  Below, my favourite version of the song. The pianist is Karl Engel pounding the ivories with manic glee. A delicious mix of lusciousness and tension in Peter Schreier's singing. .The photo above is a 1930's card of Brocken Mountain showing the modern tourist hotel, encircled by witches. Note the naked maidens.

 :

Mailied with a twist

It's May and all the buds are bursting into bloom !  O Earth, O sun, O joy, O hope,, O love, O Love !  The protagonist loves the girl because she makes him happy, which is fair enough. But as Richard Stokes pointed out ages ago, it's Goethe, and there's a broader idea in the end. Sei ewig glücklich, wie du mich liebst! May you ever be happy the way that you love me.

 Wie herrlich leuchtet Mir die Natur! Wie glänzt die Sonne! Wie lacht die Flur!

 Es dringen Blüten Aus jedem Zweig und tausend Stimmen Aus dem Gesträuch,

 Und Freud und Wonne aus jeder Brust. O Erd', O Sonne! O Glück, O Lust! O Lieb', O Liebe!

So golden schön, Wie Morgenwolken Auf jenen Höhn! Du segnest herrlich Das frische Feld,

Im Blütendampfe Die Welt. Mädchen, Mädchen, Wie lieb ich dich! Wie blickt dein Auge, Wie liebst du mich!

So liebt die Lerche Gesang und Luft, und Morgenblumen Den Himmelsduft,

Wie ich dich liebe mit warmen Blut, Die du mir Jugend Und Freud und Mut zu neuen Liedern
Und Tänzen gibst.

Sei ewig glücklich, wie du mich liebst! (which Beethoven repeats 3 times)

Dresdner Kreuzchor Weihnachtszyklus 1945

Rudolf Mauersberger's Weihnachtszyklus first performed 15th December 1944.with the Dresdner Kreuzchor. Two months later, Dresden would be destroyed by British and American firebombs, flattening the historic old quarter of the city, one of the treasures of German culture.  Coventry doesn't compare. The boys of the Kreuzchor hid for shelter in a dark cellar nearby, not knowing what was going on outside, or if their families were safe. Mauersberger, their choirmaster, calmed them down by making them sing songs of faith. Can hymns have been quite so fervent, out of the mouths of children?

Mauersberger's Weihnachtszyklus is beautiful bercause it celebrates Christmas from the perspective of children. It's not yet another telling of the Bible story, which the choristers sang about all year round. Instead, it describes the Dresden Striezelmarkt, or Christmas fair, and the simple folk toys that children marvelled at before Christmas was commercialized. We can hear bells, cuckoo calls,  and rhythms suggesting the movement of mechanical toys. The choristers sing with real enthusiasm, all the more touching because many of these boys, one of whom is Peter Schreier,  had been huddled together as the bombs fell around them four years earlier.

Perhaps Mauersberger's Weihnachtszyklus fell out of favour in the DDR because it was a raw reminder of the war, and of lost innocence, but I think that is exactly why it should become part of the Christmas repertoire not only in Germany but elsewhere. Do watch the video, published by a Dresdner Kreuzchor source, because it includes photos from their archives, not seen otherwise. Every British youth choir "needs" to hear this.

Heinrich Schütz who changed my life

There have been many good musical moments for me, but one stands out above all. Heinrich Schütz, Historia der frölichen und siegreichen Auferstehung unser Herrn Jesus Christus (1623)

Schütz was born one hundred years before J S Bach. He studied with Monteverdi, which probably makes him a link between the Italian and German baroque. Yet he was a Protestant, in an era when people killed each other for religion. He lived through the Thirty Years War, perhaps the most savage conflict Europe experienced before the 20th century. Millions were killed. Entire regions were devastated. Although Schütz worked in relative safety for the Elector of Saxony, the world around him had been in turmoil since the Reformation. For Schütz, comfort was not a given. He writes glorious polyphony, but his beliefs were forged in fire.

Schütz's music is austere and deeply expressive. When you listen to things like Psalmen Davids or Musikalische Exequien you feel like you are totally alone in the darkness, sustained by faith in a power beyond human comprehension. Schütz founded what is now the Staatskapelle Dresden but he didn't have job security. When he fell out of favour at court, he became destitute. His family died young. He lived on alone until the age of 87, which in those days was like being Methuselah.

The first time I heard the Aufersthungshistorie was on a broadcast from the composer's beloved Dresden, it was like a kind of epiphany. I can't explain it, but the music shone out like a blast of light, illuminating everything with a kind of pure spiritual clarity. I don't follow Schütz's religion yet it moved me in a way I've never been able to rationalize. Maybe he connects to something very deep in the human soul penetrating past the trappings of church and society. The piece is written for simple forces, so it can be performed in small, spartan places: opulent palace settings wouldn't work. It's almost entirely a capella, an interplay between the Evangelist and a group of youthful voices, supported by a cache of different violas de gambe and positive organ.

Speaking about Bible-based music, a friend of mine recently said "We all know the story". Yet what makes Schütz's version so powerful is that it feels vivid, fresh, immediate. Until very recently, the Bible had been in Latin, not in German. It must still have felt shocking to hear Jesus depicted by a group of young male voices, their voices weaving like shimmering light. Schütz's Evangelist tells the story in clear, direct terms, as if he's recounting something amazing happening right before his eyes. Even though the story itself is so well known we take it for granted, it IS amazing. A man defies death itself and rises to glory. It IS exciting news.

Schütz's Auferstehungshistorie is so uplifting. In my running days I'd jog along listening to it as I ran. After 40 minutes, I was pretty whacked but then the glorious finale would kick in. Gott sei dank! sing the chorus, in multiple harmonies, while the tenor soars above all Victoria! Victoria!, and the chorus joins in splendidly woven polyphony. No matter how tired I was, when that finale came on, suddenly I'd speed up before collapsing in joyous ecstasy. I can't run now, and I won't live to be 87. But when I'm decrepit and on the point of death, I suspect that "Victoria! Victoria!" will ring in my soul.

The absolute top recommendation is the Berlin Classics recording (get it HERE, with soundclips) originally made during the DDR era when the Communists frowned on religious expression. In Dresden, however, the Schütz tradition was very strong, so no regime could suppress this music. Just as the Iron Curtain collapsed because the Leipzigers used music as protest, the Dresdeners might have realized the significance of music which suggests that men can beat death  The singing is exceptionally inspired, and the ensemble is tight and muscular: as Reformation music probably needed to be. What's more the Evangelist is Peter Schreier. He's practically incandescant with intensity. He was a choirboy in the Dresden Kreuzchor in February 1945, when Dresden's historic city was flattened by a firebomb raid in which tens of thousands were killed. The choirboys were sheltering in a cellar. They were outside the immediate danger zone, but they didn't know that and were terrified. Then, the choirmaster suggested that they join together, singing....

Spooky or not? Schütz seems to follow me around. One day while browsing Benjamin Britten's personal library at the Red House, Aldeburgh, what should be on the shelves ? The original edition of Prof Hans Moser's complete Heinrich Schütz:  His Life and Works. And then I was given a copy for my birthday. 

Depths of Der Gondelfahrer - Schubert's soul

Today is Schubert's Birthday, but instead of the usual favourites, I'll write about Der Gondelfahrer because it sheds light on Schubert's values. Ostensibly it's a nocturne, set in exotic Venice. Es tanzen Mond und Sterne, Den flücht'gen Geisterreih'n. But don't be fooled. Already, Geister are afoot.

The poet is Johann Baptist Mayrhofer, a complex man, crippled by morbid thoughts and self hate. A contemporary who knew both Schubert and Mayrhofer described the latter as "always ailing, of sickly complexion, bony but with an abnormal nervous system, totally without elasticity, rigid, icy cold. Also,  in his poetry : elegaic, misanthropic, rancorous, scolding, sarcastic, symbolically-inclined.....his existence and works were a perpetual frenzied struggle of matter and soul, consumed by tragic fluctuation."

Mayrhofer's career was torturous. He trained as priest, became a lawyer but ended up working for the Imperial Censor, which in Metternich's time was the equivalent of a paranoid police state. Since most of Schubert's circle were politically liberal and religiously lax, such work accentuated Mayrhofer's self-critical doubts. Mayrhofer reflects the dark side of Romanticism, with its "Gothic" fixations on gloom and evil. He drowned himself in 1836 but his life seems to have been one long death wish. We don't know why Schubert suddenly dropped Mayrhofer but he can't have been great company, even for Romantics.

So be alert. The poem goes on: Wer wird von Erdensorgen Befangen immer sein! Du kannst in Mondesstrahlen, (who would by earthly agonies be forever trapped? But Du kannst in Mondesstrahlen (you can sparkle in the moonlight) and on the boat alle Schranken los (all restraints gone). But is this an escapist fantasy? Wiegt dich des Meeres Schoss. Vom Markusturme tönte der spruch der Mitternacht (Cradle yourself in the ocean's womb. From St Mark's Tower tolls the sound of midnight). Longing to return to a time before life, ordained by the dark tolling bells which represent Church and State. Since Venice was occupied by Austria, the political undercurrents are obvious.

Sie schlummern friedlich alle, Und nur der Schiffer wacht. Everyone's sleeping peacefully, except the boatman who is on watch. Who is this boatman? Schubert writes lilting, charming bacarolle, to create the image of gentle waves. But why would a gondolier be awake when all the customers lie in bed? This Gondelfahrer's trips cross Lethe not lagoon. He's always alert for the next customer, who might yet be blissfully unaware. Mayrhofer, for all his personal agonies, was an excellent poet, with a surreal vision that's almost 20th century. If only he'd liked himself more, but OTOH he wasn't a self-satisfied prig. Significantly, after Schubert split from Mayrhofer, he was one of the first composers to embrace Heinrich Heine.

So to Schubert's two setting of the poem. The first D808 for high voice and piano plays along with the surface image of Venice and moonlight. Yet no Romantic would fail to twitch at the discrepancy between outward appearances and inner meaning. This is no lullaby, it's a reminder of the presence of Death. As if to emphasize the disconnect, Schubert's second setting, D809 for male quartet, employs a more vigorous jaunty rhythm. Don't take Schubert at face value. Quite possibly the idea of using male voices is to stress the falsity of butch bonhomie. The piano part is sturdy, like a march so fast it can't be sustained too long. The pace is rigid, unrelentless, until the bellrings, when the piano takes on a cruel, metallic tone. No "womb" here. It's midnight, and the ghosts are prowling, dancing in rows, like the moon and stars.  The voices sing decorative rounds, intertwining melodically, but we know from the poem and from the piano, that it's illusion. The Gondelfahrer will get everyone in the end.  The version below is the finest of all because it pits solo pianist (Wolfgang Sawallisch) against a small enough group of singers so their jolly, dance-like interweavings shine brightly. Indeed, the cheerfulness seems almost demented once we know what the song is really about. That's the whole idea. Recognize the voices in Capella Bavariae? Peter Schreier and Fischer Dieskau included. The pianist is Wolfgang Sawallisch.

Drei Könige wandern aus Morgenland

Peter Schreier aged 13 when he was an alto in the Dresdner Kreuzchor. It's the hymn by Peter Cornelius (1824-74) For the Heinrich Heine version, please see HERE


Drei Könige wandern aus Morgenland;
Ein Sternlein führt sie zum Jordanstrand.
In Juda fragen und forschen die drei,
Wo der neugeborene König sei?
Sie wollen Weihrauch, Myrrhen und Gold
Dem Kinde spenden zum Opfersold.

Und hell erglänzet des Sternes Schein:
Zum Stalle gehen die Kön’ge ein;
Das Knäblein schaun sie wonniglich,
Anbetend neigen die Könige sich;
Sie bringen Weihrauch, Myrrhen und Gold
Zum Opfer dar dem Knäblein hold.

O Menschenkind! halte treulich Schritt!
Die Kön’ge wandern, o wandre mit!
Der Stern der Liebe, der Gnade Stern
Erhelle dein Ziel, so du suchst den Herrn,
Und fehlen Weihrauch, Myrrhen und Gold,
Schenke dein Herz dem Knäblein hold!

Padmore Lachner and Kynoch Brahms

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Monday's lunchtime concert at the Wigmore Hall features Mark Padmore and Kristian Bezuidenhout. He's singing Schumann songs and Liederkreis op 24, but the big treat will be Franz Lachner Lieder. Lachner may not be major league like Schumann, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Loewe, all his contemporaries, but he's interesting nonetheless. Peter Schreier recorded an entire disc of the songs of Conradin Kreutzer. It's not bad, but Kreutzer who? As Schreier said at the time, "You appreciate the peaks better when you know the valleys".

Everyone's heard of Lachner, who was displaced at Munich by Richard Wagner. Lachner was prolific, and his choral and chamber music have enjoyed a vogue for some time. The classic recording of Lachner's songs was made by Christoph Prégardien and Andreas Staier many years ago, so it's good to hear new versions. Angelika Kirschschlager  sang some recently, also at the Wigmore Hall.  Please see my earlier piece on Lachner and his Sängerfahrt op 33 cycle from which these songs come.

Padmore has chosen five Lachner songs. Die einsame Träne derives from Schubert: explicit musical special effects. Not a deep song but a good introduction to the composer because it shows his relationship to the master. Padmore follows this with songs that show more of Lachner's individuality. Listen out for Im Mai set by Schumann seven years later at the start of Dichterliebe. Lachner's lyrical circular patterns expand. Singing them must make your  heart soar. The fullness and promise of Spring. I love the piano part, which evokes a lyre - some shepherd playing in an Arcadian landscape? Great song.

Das Fischermädchen uses the same Heine text as Schubert used in Schwanengesang. What might Heine have further inspired in Schubert had Schubert not died too soon after discovering the poet? Schubert's Das Fischermädchen has powerfully erotic undercurrents. Lachner's is relatively prim, but pleasant. Padmore sang it at the Holywell Music Room in Oxford not long ago, bringing out its virtues.

Die Meerfrau is altogether fiercer stuff. Pounding ostinato, creating tension. Sirens are lovely but they lure men to their deaths. What's interesting about Lachner's approach is that he seems to  sympathize with the siren, as if he intuits that she can't help what she does. Sexuality runs through Lachner's Sängerfahrt, written as an engagement gift to his fiancée. It shows how unprudish Germans were even though they were chaste. Anxiety, fear of the unknown, but fundamentally healthy and positive. If Lachner lived today, he's probably be happily naked on the beach. Even more psychologically explicit is Ein Traumbild, which starts as a romantic wet dream, but as the incubus pulls the dreamer to her breast, he recoils in horror. Just in time, the cock crows, he's saved. Fabulously dramatic.

Get to the Wigmore Hall if you can at 1pm. If not, it's being broadcast on BBC Radio 3 live and will be online and on demand, with a repeat on Saturday (and another 7 days' listening after that. Padmore is planning a recording, which will be much welcome.  Hoho ! Listening to the nbroadcast I note the BBC p[rewsenters quoting me on Lachner. More important, though, there will be a broadcast of Angelike Kirschschlager's concert mentioned above, Monday performance on Three available online and on demand for 7 days. Read about it on the link in para 2

If in London, also get to the Purcell Room at 7.45 for Brahms Complete Violin and Piano Sonatas. Sholto Kynoch is one of the most gifted young song pianists around, but he's also established a strong reputation in chamber music. His Messiaen disc is very good indeed. He'll be playing at the Purcell Room with Alda Dizdari. The other night I was having a quick dinner at Le pain Q when I looked up at a South Bank publicity screen. There she was, fantastically glamorous  I've heard Kynoch and Kaoru Yamada many times, but not Dizdari. Since Kynoch works with partners for their musical abilities, not their looks, he and Dizdari should be interesting.
photo credit : Marco Borggreve

Schumann Genoveva Leipzig Gewandhaus recording

Everyone knows Schumann's Genoveva Overture, but those who know the full opera can hear it as the missing link between Weber and Wagner. The full opera isn't a rarity but it has a reputation for being "unstageable", so get to the performances put on by University College Opera at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London this week.

THIS is the absolute top recording, from 1976. Kurt Masur conducts the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. Soloists are unsurpassable. Peter Schreier as Golo, Edda Moser as Genoveva, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Seigfried Lorenz, and Seigfried Vogel. This is a true classic. The performance are exceptionally vivid, fresh and passionate. Their enthusiasm makes a case for this wonderful opera.

Genoveva is a virtuous woman who is set up by Golo, a villain who's in love with her. Magic is involved, too. Golo's friend is Margaretha the witch. Genoveva ends up living in the woods with her baby son Schmerzenreich (rich with sorrow). She's so gentle that the animals look after her. The painting above by Adrian Ludwig Ritter was painted in 1841, so is from Schumann's time (it's on the cover of the Masur recording).

The story itself is ancient, but significantly, Schumann, rejected tradiiional, sentimental texts for a text by Freidrich Hebel, written in 1843. Schumann started the Overture in 1847, completing the opera in 1848, right in the midst of the Revolutions of that year. Wagner was on the barricades in Dresden. While Schuman hid away in the countryside, his manifesto was his music. As Hebbel had said, "Any drama will come alive only to the extent it expresses the spirit of the age". Like many original things, it wasn't all that well received. Not long after, Schumann became ill and Genoveva fell out of fashion. But forget fashionable assumptions and listen to the music itself (especially the Leipzig recording).

The Overture sets the stage, introducing the themes that will be developed more fully in the opera. It's marvellous, but listen to how it zooms into a chorale, and then into the opera proper, rather like successive proscenia in a theatre add depth to a flat stage. Schumann's doing dramatic perspective with music.

Think of the colours in orchestration: "golden" shining trumpet fanfares, dense textures that suggest dark forests and shadow. Magical sweeping strings, sudden twists and turns. When Genoveva's husband Siegfried goes off to war, we hear pipes and drums, perhaps even galloping horses. There's so much in this music that it's a shame to recreate it literally: no one comes close to Schumann. Your imagination, in any case, will provide more than can be practical in live performance.

Yet don't be seduced by the gorgeous surface. The central dynamic in this opera is between Golo and Genoveva - good and evil. Peter Schreier's Golo is wonderful, because he's so bright and intense, you "feel" that Golo isn't a one-dimensional stock baddie, but a much more complex person - a Romantic hero gone wrong, a pre-Wagner hero, even. What happens to Genoveva is savage, but she's steadfast and survives because she has integrity.

Schumann's vocal balance is superb - soprano, mezzo, tenor, baritone, bass. solos and choir. This makes the interactions move swiftly. The duets and trios are specifically clear : no fudging, every word each character sings is meant to be heard. The choral writing is more uniformed (sometimes they're singing as soldiers) but combined with that wonderfully rich orchestration, it's fabulous. Auf, auf in das feld! could come from Lohengrin. Then Schreier sings alone, Ich bin allein, with minimal woodwind accompaniment: a crazed swan-hero emerging from the mist. Genoveva and Lohengrin were both premiered in the summer of 1850.

This "Elsa", though, is tougher than she seems. The vocal writing is beautiful, ometimes using the full range of the fach in a single aria. Genoveva and Golo have confrontations, yet they're equals: listen to the duet Wenn ich ein Vöglein wär. It's an old folk rhyme, but Schumann has both voices sing with equal force, first in unison, then in diametric opposition. Edda Moser's voice is light, but firm, a good foil for Schreier's adamant intensity.

Then, the finale of Act 3 in which the murdered Drago's ghost appears is scored with sprightly whips of sound (both orchestra and chorus) that vaguely recall the Wolf Glen in Der Freischütz. When Drago appears (Vogelm intoning malevolently), Schumann's audiences knew the cue. Margaretha's so scared, she tells Siegfried the truth about her scam with Golo. Gisela Schröter sang Kundry quite frequently, so this informs the way she develops Margaretha, whose part warms after this point. She's redeemed.

Edda Moser's long aria Der letzte Hiffnung schwindet is a tour de force, demanding for even the most experienced singers. Genoveva makes simple goodness an act of strength. Somehow a singer has to portray purity with great resourcefulness. Perhaps Genoveva is a symbol of unsullied national spirit : Germany was still split into dozens of principalities, some ruled by autocrats. Schumann read (and wrote) newspapers, he knew the spirit of the times. This makes the plot much more than mere fairy tale. Times may have changed, but the idea still applies, all over the world where there's power politics and scamming. There's nothing undramatic in that.

In a way it's sad Genoveva ends up subordinately submissive to Siegfried, a rather one dimensional nobleman. Fischer-Dieskau does noble like no-one else so perhaps it's not so bad.

The real tragedy is that Schumann did not live long enough to write more. Genoveva was his first attempt at opera. Das Paradies und die Peri and Szenen aus Faust are experiments, and should be respected for that, not dismissed as misfires. We know from his songs that Schumann understood writing for voice, and we know from his symphonies and chamber music, piano and other works that he had a much wider range than Wagner. He read more, too. What might he have achieved had he had continued writing after the age of 44? Many composers haven't even found themselves at that age.

So it's time to give Schumann the respect he is due, and value Genoveva for what it is. Towards the end of Genoveva, Golo sings Kennt ihr den Ring? Your heart skips a beat because you wonder what Schumann might have done had he lived longer.

Read a more detailed review HERE in Opera Today. Get the CD HERE

Hexen for Halloween

Ein schwarzer Bock,
Ein Besenstock,
Die Ofengabel, der Wocken
Reißt uns geschwind,
Wie Blitz und Wind,
Durch sausende Lüfte zum Brocken!

Um Beelzebub
Tanzt unser Trupp
Und küßt ihm die kralligen Hände!
Ein Geisterschwarm
Faßt uns beim Arm
Und schwinget im Tanzen die Brände!

(A black goat, a besom broom, an oven spade, a pitchfork, rip us along with lightning and wind, thru the turbulent air to the Brocken (mountain where witches hang out). Round Beelzebub we dance and kiss his claw-like hands. Arm in arm with a swarm of ghosts we brandish torches of fire!)

Strictly speaking this song, Hexenlied, isn't about Halloween in the Anglo-Saxon sense, but it refers to Walpurgisnacht, in the German Saxon sense. On Walpurgisnacht, the night before May 1st, the Devil gathers the witches for a wild party before the coming of Spring when their powers temporarily wane. That's why the song is also called Anderes Mailied, "alternative May song". Here it's sung with great frisson by Peter Schreier, recorded around 1973. Who says Mendelssohn can't write wild and spooky? See HERE for more clips from Schreier's recording with Walter Olbertz. Even after all these years it's my top Mendelssohn song recommendation because it's so lively and animated. It was re-released earlier this year as a boxed set with discussion. There is another Schreier Mendelssohn set with Karl Engel, which is more mellow, but I like Olbertz better because it's so vivid. This is the classic, leagues ahead of anyone else.

Gott sei dank for Heinrich Schütz

Heinrich Schütz was born a hundred years before JS Bach. He came into a world where people could still remember Martin Luther: the Reformation was still raw and real. Schütz's music inhabits an altogether tougher world. His Historia der frölichen und siegreichen Auferstehung unser Herrn Jesus Christus (1623) occupies a very special place in my heart.

The first time I heard it, broadcast from the composer's birthplace, Dresden, it was like a kind of epiphany. I can't explain it, but the music shone out like a blast of light, illuminating everything with a kind of pure spiritual clarity. I don't follow Schütz's religion yet it moved me in a way I've never been able to rationalize. It's so uplifting. In my running days I'd jog along listening to it as I ran. after an hour I was pretty whacked but then the glorious finale would kick in. Gott sei dank! sings the choir, in multiple harmonies, while the tenor soars above all Victoria! Victoria!, and the chorus joins in splendidly woven polyphony. No matter how tired I was, when that finale came on, suddenly I'd speed up before collapsing in joyous ecstasy.

Schütz's Resurrection Story is written for simple forces, mainly an interplay between the Evangelist and choir of youthful voices, supported by a cache of different violas de gambe and positive organ. Speaking about Bible-based music, a friend of mine recently said "We all know the story". What is so moving about Schütz's version is that it feels vivid, fresh, immediate. Until very recently, the Bible had been in Latin, not in German. It must still have felt shocking to hear Jesus depicted by a group of young male voices, their voices weaving like shimmering light. We're so used to Bach now, that we take Evangelists for granted. But Schütz's Evangelist tells the story in clear, direct terms, as if he's recounting something amazing happening right before his eyes.



That's why I love the Peter Schreier recording above all others : He sounds genuinely excited, for nothing quite like this has ever happened before. Just days before, Jesus's followers had seen him die on the cross. Now suddenly he appears in their midst, speaks and even shares a meal with them. No wonder they can't believe their eyes. So Jesus sings "Sehet meine Hände und meine Füsse! Ich bin er selbst!" The voices bounce up and down with joy. Schreier's Evangelist creates a glowing aura like glanzende Kleider, around the other parts, for this is a miracle, not something prosaic. This performance is as unblasé as you can imagine.

The recording was made in 1972, in the dark days of the DDR when faith was perhaps as dangerous as it had been in Schütz's time. Even if the performers didn't share the composer's beliefs they knew who he was and what he stood for in early 17th century Dresden. You can hear clips from the whole Schreier recording, on the www.jpc.de website, and perhaps elsewhere. One of the male sopranos (singing Jesus and Mary Magdelene) is Olaf Bär, who's now a respected baritone.

Please also reead my post on Mendelssohn's Lobgesang HERE