March 19, 2021
Janelle Santi ~ soprano
Caroline Schmidt ~ mezzo-soprano
Devin Hilliker ~ piano
Frauenliebe und Leben – Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856)
Ich kann's nicht fassen, nicht glauben
Helft mir, ihr Schwestern
An meinem Herzen, an meiner Brust
Nun has du mir den ersten Schmerz getan
Abschiedslied der Zugvögel Op 63 No 2 – Felix Mendelssohn
Sonatine No. 1 "Modéré" – Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937)
Pur ti Miro, Pur ti godo from L'incoronazione di Poppea – Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643) *
Les roses d’Ispahan Op 39 No 4 – Gabriel Fauré (1845 - 1924)
Silent Noon – Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958) *
* Ian VanderBurgh, piano
Program Notes
This recital features two of Felix Mendelssohn’s Six Duets (Op 63, 1844) which frame the entire Frauenliebe und Leben (A Woman's Life and Love, 1840) by Robert Schumann. Schumann’s famous song cycle describes a woman meeting a young man, falling in love, marrying, and them being widowed, with each stage of love and loss beautifully paralleled in the progression of seasons from spring through to winter in the natural world.
Ravel wrote "Modéré," the first movement of his Sonatine No. 1, around 1905 for a Paris competition whose main requirement was that entries must be no longer than 75 measures. He actually submitted the piece under a pseudonym but added his real name after completing the other two movements. Although built on traditional sonata form structure, "Modéré is full of Ravel’s impressionist harmonic colours.
Pur ti Miro, Pur ti godo (I gaze upon you, I possess you) is the final aria in Monteverdi’s last and most famous opera, “The Coronation of Poppea,” premiered in Venice the year of his death, 1643. The lyrics of Pur ti Miro don’t appear in the original score and are attributed to another composer-librettist, Benedetto Ferrari. The main libretto was by Monteverdi’s collaborator, Giovanni Francesco Busenello.
Silent Noon is Vaughan Williams’ widely loved setting of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s (1828-1882) poem by the same name, written in sonnet form. It describes a quiet time spent by two lovers in a field in the countryside on a summer’s day.
Maiglocken (Spring Song) is the popular title given to this well-known selection (Op. 62 No.6) of Mendelssohn’s “Songs without Words” – a series of short lyrical Romantic piano pieces written between 1829 and 1845. Over-used during the 1950s as cartoon background by Disney Studios, this delicate vignette is once again being appreciated as a lovely example of a genre later adopted by many other composers, including Mendelssohn’s sister Fanny.
