Today, the wunderschönen Monat Mai begins; It's a good day to listen to Dichterliebe, at least from those first notes that are a balm for the soul until the seventh song, which is ours today. To talk in order about the songs in this cycle allows us to follow what happens to the poet. He talked to us about a love that begins in May, about tears that are offerings, about his beloved, more beautiful than the sun, about a kiss that cures all ills or about the memories of that kiss. He sent us some contradictory messages (he cries bitterly when she says "I love you"), but the last song we listened, Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome, doesn't [...]
Today is Saint George's Day! And Tuesday; I'm posting one day in advance so that I can give you my musical rose, as usual. So far, a different composer has brought the rose every year; this time we welcome again a Nordic composer, after Sibelius and his wonderful Svarta Rosor of last year. Edvard Grieg visits us with one of his best-known songs, Zur Rosenzeit, with a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
We have a shorter post his week, as usual in Holy Week. In fact, it's a continuation of last week's post. By chance, the first part of Wolf's Spanisches Liederbuch, the Geistliche Lieder (Sacred songs) is most appropriate for these dates.
After having written in a year and a half the fifty-three Mörike-Lieder, the thirteen Eichendorff-Lieder that completed his collection and almost all the Goethe-Lieder, Hugo Wolf was anxious. Which poet would be his next one? The answer came through a friend of a friend of his, who lent him a volume of poetry that seemed suitable. He was really right: just a week after writing the 51st and last song by Goethe, Die Spröde, on October 28, 1889 Wolf wrote Wer sein holdes Lieb', the first Lied of Spanisches Liederbuch (Spanish Songbook), a series of forty-four that he ended on April 27, 1890.
This week, I delayed the post until today because I wanted to talk about the Schubertíada, the 27th season has just been announced. Five of the concerts were announced in December and one more some days ago, and now, we know the whole season. We'll have great artists and great programmes!