EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! In the light of (another) day, I've brazenly added a sixth version, Christa Ludwig's, to the five performances we were already tracking through Graham Johnson's observations about "An die Musik."
In this continuation of the February 2012 master class at the Jerusalem Music Centre we dipped into in Part B, Graham Johnson works with Hungarian-born mezzo-soprano Hanna Bardos (with pianist Emma Walker) on Schubert's "Death and the Maiden."
TODAY'S A-B-C POST AT THE TIPby Ken
OF YOUR CLICKING FINGER
Part A (nos. 1-3 + other stuff)
Part B (nos. 4-7 + other stuff)
Part C (nos. 8-10 + other stuff)
Once again, for reasons of capacity somewhere along the distribution line, presumably on account of all those
The piano postlude mirrors this descent in a succession of sequences of chords built around appoggiaturas which lean and sigh, tugging on the sleeve and pulling the heartstrings. A simple yet heart-stopping excursion into the subdominant subtly emphasises that this hymn of praise is also a type of prayer.
[We're going to hear that postlude again (and again and again and . . .) in the audio clips for no. 8. -- Ed.]
OKAY, LET'S GET BACK TO IT!
[8] "The second strophe introduces the idea of the harp which probably inspired the piano's gentle right hand strumming."
"Often has a sigh, escaped from your harp, a sweet, sacred
harmony (chord) from you, opened up the heaven of better times"
harmony (chord) from you, opened up the heaven of better times"
[NOTE: For these clips I couldn't help myself -- I picked up all the way back at the above-referenced piano postlude to the first stanza.]
Edith Mathis, soprano; Graham Johnson, piano
Fritz Wunderlich, tenor; Hubert Giesen, piano
Pavel Lisitsian, baritone; Naum Valter, piano
Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano; Geoffrey Parsons, piano
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone; Gerald Moore, piano
[9] "As in all of Schubert's really great strophic songs the vocal line is suitable for both verses; note for example how the interval of a sixth which has bowed down to Music on 'holde Kunst' is also deeply eloquent and descriptive of the sigh of 'ein Seufzer'."
1st stanza (strophe)
2nd stanza (strophe)
Edith Mathis, soprano; Graham Johnson, piano
Fritz Wunderlich, tenor; Hubert Giesen, piano
Pavel Lisitsian, baritone; Naum Valter, piano
Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano; Geoffrey Parsons, piano
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone; Gerald Moore, piano
[10] "The final words of thanks at the end of the song ('du holde Kunst, ich danke dir') can be unbearably moving. This song was the last encore sung by Lotte Lehmann at her farewell recital at New York's Town Hall in 1951. After a lifetime of service to music she was too choked by tears to sing these final lines, the accompanist finishing the song for her."
"Du holde Kunst, ich danke dir dafür, du holde Kunst, ich danke dir!"
"Thou lovely art, I thank you for it, thou lovely art I thank you!"
"Thou lovely art, I thank you for it, thou lovely art I thank you!"
Edith Mathis, soprano; Graham Johnson, piano
Fritz Wunderlich, tenor; Hubert Giesen, piano
Pavel Lisitsian, baritone; Naum Valter, piano
Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano; Geoffrey Parsons, piano
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone; Gerald Moore, piano
[arr. for solo piano] Gerald Moore, arr. and piano
LOTTE LEHMANN: "I TRY TO SING 'AN DIE MUSIK' "
Last week we heard this 1941 broadcast "An die Musik":
Lotte Lehmann, soprano; Paul Ulanowsky, piano. American radio performance, Oct. 8, 1941
Now here's the 1951 "Farewell Recital" version (Lehmann
sings the final "du holde Kunst," but not "ich danke dir"):
Lotte Lehmann, soprano; Paul Ulanowsky, piano. VAI, final encore from Lehmann's "Farewell Recital," Town Hall (New York City), Feb. 16, 1951
GRAHAM HAS A FEW FINAL SENTENCES TO ADD --
Schubert was also attempting to give voice to the almost inexpressible. To write music about music is the hardest thing of all, and in the wordless gratitude of the postlude, this most literary of composers retreats into that realm of art where words simply cannot carry the depth of his feeling. "Such a song," writes Richard Capell, "wins for the author a tenderness that is more than admiration from the coming and going generations.
©1994 Graham Johnson
WHY DON'T WE LISTEN TO THE PERFORMANCES WE'VE
BEEN HEARING ALL CHOPPED UP, PUT BACK TOGETHER?
SCHUBERT: "An die Musik," D. 547
Edith Mathis, soprano; Graham Johnson, piano. From Vol. 21 of the Hyperion Schubert Edition, recorded Oct. 21-23, 1992
Fritz Wunderlich, tenor; Hubert Giesen, piano. DG, recorded November 1965
Pavel Lisitsian, baritone; Naum Valter, piano. Melodiya, recorded 1961
Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano; Geoffrey Parsons, piano. EMI, recorded Nov. 28-30, 1961
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone; Gerald Moore, piano. DG, recorded 1966-67
[arr. for solo piano, one stanza only] Gerald Moore, arr. and piano. EMI, final encore from the "Homage to Gerald Moore," Royal Festival Hall (London), Feb. 20, 1967
NOW, ABOUT THESE PERFORMANCES WE TRACKED --
I promised to say something about how they were chosen, "in case it isn't obvious." Well, obviously we wanted to hear Graham Johnson playing "An die Musik," and if I'd been planning this as a project from scratch, with unlimited funds, I'll bet we could have gathered several performances, with a view to hearing how he adapted to different singers.
As readers who have been with us before in this series know, the recordings by baritone Pavel Lisitsian and tenor Fritz Wunderlich are practically part of my DNA. They're two of the most beautiful recordings of anything that I've heard, and interestingly and wonderfully different -- not just baritone (obviously singing in a lower key) vs. tenor but a whole lot slower vs. a whole lot faster. One thing I discovered in making the ten audio clips from each performance -- a kind of scrutiny to which not a lot of singers would care to be exposed -- is that there really isn't any point in either performance where the singer isn't, shall we say, transcendent. It could be that I'm merely seduced by the beauty of their singing, and it is indeed ravishingly beautiful. So I would have no difficulty pleading guilty to this particular charge. However, I think in both cases there is something very particular about the kind of vocal and verbal beauty they produce, all shaped by (and shaping) and expressive of the verbal and musical material.
[UPDATE PARAGRAPH] With regard to the bonus sixth performance I added after-the-fact to this post-chain, Christa Ludwig's, on rehearing it I thought it was really pretty nice -- not Wunderlich-nice or Lisitsian-nice, but still really nice -- and I thought it might add a bit of balance to our male-dominated roster. What's more, for those who recall that I have, er, issues with Geoffrey Parsons, this is another example of the good Geoffrey. Again, Ludwig seems to have had an eerie ability to draw out of her musical collaborators just the kind of collaboration she needed, and since she wasn't asking GP to do anything unorthodox or even slightly out of the box, he was in his element.
Finally, with that peerless accompanist Gerald Moore I would have liked to do the same thing I spoke of in connection with Graham Johnson: listen to performances with several singers, or even the same singer(s) on different occasions, to hear how GM's playing adapts. But I settled for the performance that was most readily to hand, which had the added virtue of allowing us to hear, in this seminal song, possibly the preeminent Lieder singer of the 20th century. I'm not saying "best" (though there are certainly performances of his I can't imagine being bettered -- just off the top of my head, remember that stunning 1960-ish performance of Schumann's "Widmung" with Jörg Demus we heard in November 2011?), just "preeminent." In the end, we didn't have to "settle" for that collaboration; we've also got the solo-piano performance, which we've already heard, of GM having the final musical word at the 1967 "Homage" to him. As I said before when we heard this performance, it's more indulgent than I can imagine the pianist ever being while accompanying a singer.
 |
| Longtime colleagues Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Gerald Moore jointly ponder Schubert. |
As a matter of fact, there are all kinds of audacious expressive choices in this recording with Fischer-Dieskau. And it's important to note that he sings "An die Musik" at score pitch, Schubert's D major, meaning that those upper F-sharps -- most importantly the climactic sustained ones on "hast mich in eine bessre Welt entrückt" (first stanza) and "du holde Kunst, ich danke dir dafür" (second stanza) -- are real F-sharps, and not terrible ones. They just aren't terribly well controlled, or for that matter chosen. F-D has found a way to bawl them out, and we just have to accept that that's the way they come out, and never mind that they sound like they're coming from a different voice (effectively, they are). For that matter, the area on the immediate underside of the break -- say, D to E -- doesn't sound all that free either. And I'm certainly not crazy about that woozy sky-is-falling sounds he makes on those "touching downward leap[s] of a sixth," as Graham J would have them, on "in wie-viel grauen Stunden" and "ein Seufzer, dei-ner Harf entflossen." Still and all, when I relisten to the performance keeping in mind the challenge Fischer-Dieskau set himself, I'm pretty impressed. A lot of it really is wonderful. I'm not sure, though, how frequently I'll be returning to it.
STRAUSS-SCHUBERT SERIES POSTS
"Today's sacred word is 'heilig ('holy' or 'sacred'), chez Schubert and R. Strauss -- make of it what you will" [7/15/2018]
"While I toil away at today's post, here's a preview"
[7/22/2018 (1)]
"We have more 'An die Musik,' 'Zueignung,' and 'Musik ist eine heilige Kunst' -- but remember, this only sounds like a 'good news' post [7/22/2018 (2)]
"Speaking of Schubert's 'An die Musik,' Strauss's 'Zueignung,' and the Ariadne Prologue, a few (eventually) final questions, Part 1" [7/29/2018]*
"A poem that's 'not strikingly original' in a setting that's 'conventional in every way save for its greatness' -- let's welcome back Schubert's 'An die Musik'" [8/5/2018]
" 'An die Musik': How does a musical setting (of a 'not strikingly original' poem) that's 'conventional in every way save for its greatness' achieve that greatness? (Part A)" [8/12/2018 (1 of 3)]
" 'An die Musik': How does a musical setting (of a 'not strikingly original' poem) that's 'conventional in every way save for its greatness' achieve that greatness? (Part B)" [8/12/2018 (2 of 3)]
" 'An die Musik': How does a musical setting (of a 'not strikingly original' poem) that's 'conventional in every way save for its greatness' achieve that greatness? (Part C)" [8/12/2018 (3 of 3)]
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