Episode 468. Deutsche Orchesterlieder: Beyond Mahler and Strauss
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Today’s episode is another devoted to orchestral song, in this case Deutsche Orchesterlieder. But, in a twist, you will not be hearing any music by either Mahler or Strauss today. (Their orchestral songs have already been amply represented on Countermelody. No, today I am featuring songs ranging from the late nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century. Some of the composers presented – Alban Berg, Max Reger, Hugo Wolf, Arnold Schoenberg – will be familiar to listeners; others – Alexander Zemlinsky, Hans Pfitzner, Paul Hindemith, Hans Werner Henze, Franz Schreker – perhaps more as names familiar for musical historical reasons than for their actual compositions. Still others – Ernst Toch, Wolfgang Fortner, Joseph Marx – may be new discoveries altogether. What links them is that they are all fascinating composers whose works run the gamut from lush post-romanticism to exotic orientalism to Neue Sachlichkeit clarity. Texts include the great German lyric poets; anonymous Italian folk poetry; German translations of American poets such as Walt Whitman and major figures of the Harlem Renaissance; and translations of ancient Chinese poetry and the verse of Rabindranath Tagore. Similarly varied are the singers (Elisabeth Söderström, Friedrich Schorr, Edith Mathis, Willard White, Elly Ameling, Irmgard Seefried, Roberta Alexander, Barry McDaniel, Christine Brewer, Christa Ludwig, Helen Donath) and conductors (Michael Tilson Thomas, Riccardo Chailly, Rafael Kubelik, Sergiu Celibidache, Erich Leinsdorf, Carl Schuricht, Hermann Scherchen), heard. Settle in for a ride across a varied, surprising, and always engaging musical landscape.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Alban Berg, Peter Altenberg: Seele, wie bist du schöner (Fünf Orchesterlieder nach Ansichtskartentexten von Peter Altenberg [Altenberg-Lieder], Op. 4/1). Roberta Alexander, Michael Tilson Thomas, Boston Symphony Orchestra [live Boston 03.II.1987]
Hugo Wolf, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Prometheus. Friedrich Schorr, Robert Heger, London Symphony Orchestra [1932]
Max Reger, Friedrich Hölderlin: An die Hoffnung, Op. 124 [excerpt]. Christa Ludwig, Carl Schuricht, Sinfonieorchester des Norddeutschen Rundfunks [NDR] [live Hamburg 23-24.X.1955]
Hans Pfitzner, Johann Gottfried Herder: Herr Oluf, Op. 12. Hans Christoph Begemann, Otto Tausk, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie [2010]
Alexander Zemlinsky, Joseph von Eichendorff: Waldesgespräch [excerpt]. Edith Mathis, Antony Beaumont, Symphonieorchester des Norddeutschen Rundfunks [1997]
Alexander Zemlinsky, Rabindranath Tagore [translated Hans Effenberger]: Sprich zu mir, Geliebter [excerpt] (Lyrische Symphonie, Op. 18/4). Elisabeth Söderström, Michael Gielen, BBC Symphony Orchestra [live London 18.II.1981]
Ernst Toch, Hans Bethge [translated and adapted from Chinese]: Die Ratte (Die chinesische Flöte, Op. 29/4). Elfride Trötschel, Hans Löwlein. Staatskapelle Dresden [1949]
Alexander Zemlinsky, Frank Horne [translated Anna Nussbaum]: Arabeske (Symphonische Gesänge, Op. 20/7). Willard White, Riccardo Chailly, Concertgebouw Orchestra [1993]
Wolfgang Fortner, James Weldon Johnson: The Creation [excerpt]. Barry McDaniel, Rafael Kubelik, Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks [23-24.XI.1967]
Hans Werner Henze, Anonymous 17th Century Italian text: A l’acqua de li ffuntanelle (Fünf neapolitanische Lieder, No. 2). Roland Hermann, Cristóbal Halffter, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken [1988]
Joseph Marx, Thekla Lingen: Und gestern hat er mir Rosen gebracht (Lieder und Gesänge, Folge I/24). Christine Brewer, Jiří Bělohlávek, BBC Symphony Orchestra [2008]
Paul Hindemith, Else Lasker-Schüler: Weltende (Drei Gesänge, Op. 9). Janis Martin, Gerd Albrecht, Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin [1984]
Paul Hindemith, Rainer Maria Rilke: Geburt Mariä (Das Marienleben, Op. 27/1 [revised version]). Irmgard Seefried, Sergiu Celibidache, Orchestra di Torino della RAI [live Torino 18.II.1955]
Arnold Schoenberg, Traditional German [from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, collected and adapted Clemens Brentano, Achim von Arnim]: Sehnsucht (Sechs Orchesterlieder, Op. 8/3). Colette Herzog, Sergiu Celibidache, Orchestre National de l’ORTF [live Paris 19.VII.1974]
Alban Berg, Stefan George [after Charles Baudelaire]: Die Seele des Weines; Der Wein der Liebenden (Der Wein). Elly Ameling, Erich Leinsdorf, Concertgebouw Orchestra [live Amsterdam 02.XII.1973]
Franz Schreker, Walt Whitman [translated Hans Reisinger]: Ein Kind sagte: „Was ist das Gras?“ [excerpt] (Vom ewigen Leben, No. 2). Helen Donath, Hermann Scherchen [Austrian Radio broadcast, 1963]
