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Track(s) taken from CDA67934

Der du von dem Himmel bist, S279 First version

composer
1842; LW N10
author of text
12 February 1776; Wandrers Nachtlied I

Angelika Kirchschlager (mezzo-soprano), Julius Drake (piano)
Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
CD-Quality:
Studio Master:
Recording details: October 2011
Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, United Kingdom
Produced by Simon Kiln
Engineered by Arne Akselberg
Release date: July 2012
Total duration: 4 minutes 41 seconds

Cover artwork: Photograph of Angelika Kirchschlager. Sim Canetty-Clarke
 

Reviews

‘Finding a wide palette of colours within her naturally warm mezzo, Kirchschlager is in her element … this recital should open many ears to the richness and variety of Liszt's songs. Recording and presentation are first-class’ (Gramophone)

‘The more one hears of Liszt's songs, the more one wonders why they have been so rarely performed … Kirchschlager's rich, resonant mezzo finds beauties everywhere on this disc, from heights of drama to intimacies of reflection, and at every turn Drake is with her’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘This is a fascinating and rewarding recital, which explores Liszt’s oeuvre from the 1840s to 1870s … the grainy and distinctive timbre of Kirchschlager’s vivid mezzo-soprano is well suited to this highly charged emotional world, and Drake’s playing is eloquently impassioned without sinking to fortissimo ham’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘Hyperion's retrospective of Liszt's complete songs [is] one of the most important recording projects of recent years … Kirchschlager is exquisite and intensely dramatic by turns … Drake is outstanding throughout’ (The Guardian)

‘The high expectations roused by Volume 1 of Hyperion's compete Liszt songs … are more than met with this second instalment … the programme is excellently chosen to showcase Liszt's versatility as a master of Romantic song … Kirchschlager's extraordinary dramatic gifts are displayed in the two longest songs here, Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher and Die drei Zigeuner … rich new levels of meaning are revealed … Kirchschlager and Drake deliver performances that set the beauty and inventiveness of each song in high relief … not to be missed’ (International Record Review)
The manuscript for Goethe’s ‘Wandrers Nachtlied I’, or Der du von dem Himmel bist, records that it was conceived ‘On the Ettersberg hillside. 12 February 1776’. The poem begins with a series of subordinate clauses, an acclamation that takes time to reach the heart of the matter: the persona’s plea to be done with Faustian striving and find peace. The linguistic solecism whereby ‘pain and joy’ are bound together by a masculine article, despite the feminine gender of the second noun, affirms that pleasure and pain are opposite poles of the same thing—the human condition? Liszt, who knew what it was to pray for the soul’s peace, created four settings of this poem between 1842 and 1870 (the fourth version is incomplete); typically, the first version is the longest, beginning with a brooding introduction in the piano before the singer enters with a quiet prayer. Thereafter, we alternate between invocations of ‘sweet peace’ and tonal convulsions of anguish (‘I am weary of this restlessness!’) in which the persona repeats the words of this brief poem over and over. The urgency of this plea cannot be doubted.

from notes by Susan Youens © 2012

Le manuscrit goethéen du «Wandrers Nachlied I», ou Der du von dem Himmel bist, indique que l’œuvre fut conçue «Sur le mont Ettersberg. 12 février 1776». Le poème s’ouvre sur une série de subordonnées, une acclamation qui met du temps à arriver au cœur des choses: la supplique du héros pour en finir avec la lutte faustienne et trouver la paix. Dans le texte allemand, le solécisme liant «la douleur et la joie» par un article masculin, malgré le genre féminin du second nom, affirme que le plaisir et la douleur sont les pôles opposés d’une même chose—la condition humaine? Liszt, qui s’y entendait en prière pour la paix de l’âme, mit quatre fois ce poème en musique, entre 1842 et 1870 (la dernière version est incomplète): la première version, qui est naturellement la plus longue, démarre par une inquiétante introduction pianistique avant que la chanteuse ne fasse son entrée avec une paisible prière. S’ensuit une alternance d’invocations de la «douce paix» et de convulsions tonales de souffrance («je suis las de la peine»), où le personnage ressasse tant et plus les paroles de ce court poème. Et l’insistance de cette supplique-là est irréfutable.

extrait des notes rédigées par Susan Youens © 2012
Français: Hypérion

Das Autograph von Goethes Wandrers Nachtlied I (Der du von dem Himmel bist) enthält einen Eintrag, wonach es „Am Hang des Ettersberg, d. 12 Feb.76“ konzipiert wurde. Das Gedicht beginnt mit einigen Nebensätzen, die Gott preisen, und gelangt erst nach einiger Zeit zum Kern, in dem das lyrische Ich, das des Faustischen Strebens müde ist, um Frieden bittet. Der grammatische Fehler, „Schmerz und Lust“ durch das maskuline „der“ zu verbinden, obgleich das zweite Substantiv feminin ist, unterstreicht die Janusköpfigkeit von Schmerz und Lust—die conditio humana? Liszt, der die Bedeutung eines Gebetes um Seelenfrieden kannte, vertonte das Gedicht zwischen 1842 und 1870 viermal; die vierte Fassung ist unvollendet. Bezeichnenderweise ist die erste Version die längste; nach einer brütenden Einleitung des Klaviers setzt der Sänger mit einem ruhigen Gebet ein. Darauf folgen abwechselnd Bitten um „süßen Frieden“ und Klangaufwallungen voller Verzweiflung („Ach, ich bin des Treibens müde!“), in denen das lyrische Ich die Worte des kurzen Gedichts mehrfach wiederholt. An der Dringlichkeit dieses Flehens kann kein Zweifel bestehen.

aus dem Begleittext von Susan Youens © 2012
Deutsch: Christiane Frobenius

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