Episode 420. Art Song Gal Pals Celebrate Mary
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SUBSCRIPTION PLATFORM
Today I was torn between bringing you an episode with trashy secular holiday songs or taking the high road with the Christmas portion of Paul Hindemith’s Das Marienleben cycle, featuring recordings by Jennie Tourel and Erich Itor Kahn (in the songs) preceded by Lotte Lehmann, reading from the original Rainer Maria Rilke poetry cycle. I chose the high road, and I think that I chose wisely. Neither Lehmann’s nor Tourel’s exceptionally beautiful recordings was ever reissued in any format, and these days it is quite rare to even find a copy of either. I was lucky recently to obtain copies of both and I offer the poems and songs from the first half of the cycle here, supplemented by Irmgard Seefried singing two Hindemith motets on the life of Christ, the versatile British soprano Dorothy Dorow singing a carol text set by Arnold Bax. And for those who would have preferred Holiday Trash, I begin the proceedings with the the iconic “Not on Christmas” sequence from John Waters’s 1974 masterpiece, Female Trouble. In short: something for everyone in this holiday episode!
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Arnold Bax, Anonymous 15th Century Poet: A Christmas Carol. Dorothy Dorow, Susan Bradshaw [1963]
Silent Night (as heard in Female Trouble [John Waters, 1974]
Paul Hindemith, Luke 2:15-20: Pastores loquebantur. Irmgard Seefried, Erik Werba [1952]
Paul Hindemith, Rainer Maria Rilke: Excerpts from Das Marienleben, Second Version, Op. 48. Jennie Tourel, Eric Itor Kahn [1954]
Rainer Maria Rilke: Excerpts from Das Marienleben. Lotte Lehmann [1958]
Each song is preceded by Lehmann’s reading of the original Rainer Maria Rilke poem.
I. Geburt Mariä
II. Die Darstellung Mariä im Tempel
III. Mariä Verkündigung
IV. Mariä Heimsuchung
V. Argwohn Josephs
VI. Verkündigung über den Hirten
VII. Geburt Christi
VIII. Rast auf den Flug in Ägypten
IX. Von der Hochzeit zu Kana
Paul Hindemith, John 2:1-11: Nuptiae factae sunt. Irmgard Seefried, Erik Werba [1952]