It was Juilliard's voice students' turn to perform at this past week's Wednesdays at One afternoon matinee at Alice Tully. The one-hour recital featured songs by five composers - Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Francesco Santoliquido, Karol Szymanowski and Dominick Argento.
The program began with soprano Tiffany Townsend, accompanied by pianist Daniel Fung, performing three songs by Rachmaninoff. The selected songs were chosen from different periods in the composer's early career but all were written while Rachmaninoff still resided in Russia. The titles in English translation were "The Harvest of Sorrow" (Op. 4, 1893), "How Fair this Spot" (Op. 21, 1902) and "What Happiness" (Op. 34, 1912). Rachmaninoff later borrowed the title of the first, "The Harvest of Sorrow," based on a quote from Tolstoy, for his memoir.
The Rachmaninoff was followed by Debussy's Trois Chansons de Bilitis - "La Flûte de Pan," "La Chevelure" and "Le tombeau des Naïades." The songs were composed by Debussy in 1897, three years after their source, a collection of prose poems also entitled Les Chansons de Bilitis, had been published in Paris to great acclaim. The poems, supposedly the lesbian musings of a Greek courtesan, were actually a literary hoax perpetrated by Debussy's close friend Pierre Louÿs. Although Louÿs had written the verses himself, he was at first successful in fooling scholars into believing that they were authentic ancient Greek texts penned by a contemporary of Sappho. Even after the deception had finally been uncovered, Louÿs's work was still critically praised for the quality of its verse. In Debussy's hands, the lyrics were turned into haunting impressionist songs that echoed the melancholy of the fictitious narrator. The singer here was mezzo-soprano Mary Elizabeth O'Neill, who also provided an English translation of the French lyrics; the accompanist was Raymond Wong.
Next were four songs by Santoliquido taken from I canti della sera. The titles were "L'assiola canta," "Alba di luna sul bosco," "Tristezza crepuscolare" and "L'incontro." These were performed by Hannah McDermott who also provided the translation of the Italian lyrics; she was accompanied by pianist William Kelley. Santoliquido was a minor Italian composer, and there is not much information to be found on him. I did locate a 2003 dissertation by one Abra K. Bush, though, that was quite helpful. In it, the author points out that at least part of the reason for the composer's obscurity was to be found in his decision to relocate at an early point in his career to remote Tunis in North Africa. Another factor was Santoliquido's embrace of Italian Fascism in the late 1930's. The anti-Semitic articles he wrote in 1937 and 1938 in which he questioned the role of Jews in music were thoroughly odious and effectively ended his career and destroyed his reputation.
The program continued with Szymanowski's Four Songs to Words by Tadeusz Miciński, Op. 11 (1904-1905) entitled "Tak jestem smętny," "W zaczarowanym lesie," "Nademną leci w szafir morza" and "Rycz burzo!" The singer was tenor Piotr Buszewski who also translated the lyrics from the Polish; the accompanist was once again Daniel Fung. Tadeusz Miciński was an important Polish poet at the turn of the twentieth century and a major influence on the evolution of Szymanowski's thought. Both were prominent members of the Young Poland movement which paralleled modernist trends in other European nations in its promotion of such "decadent" artistic styles as symbolism and impressionism.
The afternoon ended with three selections from Argento's Six Elizabethan Songs - "Dirge," "Spring" and "Hymn" - as sung by soprano Christine Price with William Kelley returning as accompanist. Although I have to admit I'd never heard of Argento before attending this recital, I found he's actually a very well known American composer who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1975 for another work, From the Diary of Virginia Woolf. The Elizabethan Songs differ from many of his other song cycles in that they were adapted from traditional poems rather than from letters and diaries, mostly those of other composers. The work was first published in 1958, the same year Argento was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, and was later revised in 1962 for soprano and Baroque ensemble.
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