Episode 83. Frühlingslieder

Episode 83. Frühlingslieder [Spring Songs]

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Roberta Alexander

Dear listeners, it is Easter Sunday. While we are strictly non-sectarian at Countermelody, I did want to offer a program of spring favorites to welcome in the earth’s rebirth. (I also had to scramble to create a “filler” episode due to having lost two days of work this week after receiving my first jab on Wednesday.) Hence today’s offering: a Blumenstrauss of songs celebrating the beloved season of spring. I decided to limit today’s selections exclusively to song, omitting opera, operetta, and oratorio, but somewhat arbitrarily including songs from musicals amidst the classical and pop offerings. Even so, what a lineup of stars today: everyone from Mabel Mercer to Jan DeGaetani, from Hans Hotter to Dionne Warwick, from Georgia Brown to Roberta Alexander, from Kirsten Flagstad to Gordon MacRae. We hear composers ranging from Alec Wilder to Franz Schubert, from Milton Babbitt to Burt Bacharach, and from Hugo Wolf to Tom Lehrer. May these songs and songsters help us to welcome in the long-awaited spring!

RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE

Franz Schubert, Wilhelm Müller: Der Frühling will kommen (from Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, D.965). Elly Ameling, Bas de Jong; Jean Fournet, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest [live Amsterdam 10 February 1973]

Robert Schumann, Eduard Mörike: Er ist’s (Liederalbum für die Jugend, Op.79/24). Brigitte Fassbaender; Erik Werba [live Salzburg 13 August 1977]

Hugo Wolf, Eduard Mörike: Er ist’s (Mörike-Lieder, No. VI). Edith Mathis; Gérard Wyss [1995]

Kurt Weill, Alan Jay Lerner; Green-Up Time (Love Life). Buddy Clark; Orchestra and chorus conducted by Mitchell Ayres [1948]

Claude Debussy, Paul Bourget: Voici que le printemps. Emilio de Gogorza; unknown pianist [1928]

Claude Debussy, Charles d’Orléans: Le temps a laissié son manteau (Trois chansons de France, L115/1). Bernard Kruysen; Noël Lee [1972]

Alec Wilder, Lee Kuhn: In the Spring of the Year. Mabel Mercer; Orchestra conducted by George Cory [1958]

Charles Gounod, Eugène Tourneux: Chanson de printemps. Jean-Paul Jeannotte; Jeanne Landry [1961]

Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II: It Might As Well Be Spring (State Fair). Bryn Terfel; Paul Daniel, English Northern Philharmonia [1996]

Felix Mendelssohn, Nikolaus Lenau: Frühlingslied, Op. 47/3. Judith Raskin; George Schick [1966]

Hugo Wolf, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Frühling übers Jahr (Goethe-Lieder, No 28). Peter Schreier; Wolfgang Sawallisch [1981]

Hugo Wolf, Eduard Mörike: Zitronenfalter im April (Mörike-Lieder, No. 18). Mattiwilda Dobbs; Gerald Moore [1954]

John Ireland, Rupert Brooke: Spring Sorrow. Benjamin Luxon; Alan Rowlands [1975]

Sergei Rachmaninov, Fyodor Tyutchev: Spring Waters [Весенние воды], Op. 14-11. Tamara Milashkina; Berta Kozel [1961]

Ned Rorem, Paul Goodman: Rain in Spring. Martina Arroyo; Donald Nold [1961]

Edvard Grieg, Holger Drachmann: Foraarsregn [Spring Showers], p. 49/6. Aksel Schiøtz; Gerald Moore [1946]

Burt Bacharach, Hal David: The April Fools. Dionne Warwick [1969]

A French poster for the 1969 film The April Fools.

Milton Babbitt, William Carlos Williams: The Widow’s Lament in Springtime. Jan DeGaetani; Gilbert Kalish [1988]

Vernon Duke, Yip Harburg: April in Paris. Liane [Augustin]; The Boheme Bar Trio [1957]

Franz Schubert, Wilhelm Schulze: Im Frühling, D.882. Hans Hotter; Hans-Willi Häusslein [Radio France recording 1961]

Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart: Spring Is Here (I Married an Angel). Polly Bergen; Luther Henderson and His Orchestra [1959]

Frank Loesser: Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year. Georgia Brown; Orchestra conducted by Ian Fraser [1963]

Jerome Kern, Dorothy Fields: April Fooled Me. Rebecca Luker; Joseph Thalken [2013]

Tommy Wolf, Fran Landesman: Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most. Emily Skinner [2001]

Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II: Younger than Springtime (South Pacific). Gordon MacRae; Paul Weston and His Orchestra [1955]

Tom Lehrer: Poisoning the Pigeons in the Park. Roberta Alexander; David Triestram [1996]

Edvard Grieg, Aasmund Olavsson Vinje: Våren, Op. 33/2. Kirsten Flagstad; Walter Süsskind, Philharmonia Orchestra [1948]

Walter Jurmann, Franz Rotter, French words by André Mauprey, Louis Lemarchand: Veronika, der Lenz ist da – Véronique, le printemps est là. The Comedian Harmonists [Ari Leschnikoff, Erich Collin, Harry Frommermann, Roman Cycowski, Robert Biberti, Erwin Bootz] [1930]

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