Liederabend - SV15 - L'incanto degli occhi

Song of the week: L'incanto degli occhi (F. Schubert) - L. Pisaroni, J. Zeyen

As I said last week, I'm posting four short posts during August, focused on the Schubertiade Vilabertran. This week, we're talking about the opening concert, with Measha Brueggergosman and Justus Zeyen (20th August), who will perform Schubert, Wagner and Ravel, and Luca Pisaroni and Wolfram Rieger's recital (21st August), entirely devoted to Schubert.

Maria de Medici (detail) - A. Bronzino

As I said last week, I'm posting four short posts during August, focus on the Schubertiade Vilabertran. This week, we're talking about the opening concert, with Measha Brueggergosman i Justus Zeyen (20th August), who will perform Schubert, Wagner and Ravel, and Luca Pisaroni i Wolfram Rieger's recital (21st August), entirely devoted to Schubert. From the first program, we have already heard on Liederabend three Lieder by Schubert and one by Wagner; just one song from the latter:

Nacht und Träume speaks, as the title suggests, about the night and dreams: the holy night brings peace to our hearts in the form of dreams. We heard a wonderful performance of this Lied, with Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten.
També és un nocturn Nachtstück, is also a nocturne that tells us about the peace we get in our sleep. But this time, the old man in the song, guarded by nature, will sleep forever. Fritz Wunderlich and Hubert Giesen performed the version we listened.
Once again, Death is mentioned in Auf dem Wasser zu singen, it's at the end of our road as the sea is at the end of the river path. In short, we have here a serene song to life. Of the many existing recordings, I chose to share with you the one by Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake.
Brueggergosman and Zeyen will perform Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder; we listened to Im Treibhaus, performed by Jonas Kaufmann and Helmut Deutsch, on that post about gentlemen who sing songs for ladies.
Erlkönig is one of the most famous lieder by Schubert; my friend Alicia wrote a guest post about it and the performers were Gerald Finley and Julius Drake. Later on, we listened to Erlkönigagain but I wouldn’t recommend to listen to that version before a recital.

Now, this week's song. Luca Pisaroni and Wolfram Rieger will begin their recital with four Italian songs. Schubert wrote three of them in early 1827 for a friend, the bass Luigi Lablache, a well-known singer at that time. This week, we're listening to my favorite, L'incanto degli occhi, D902/2, a love song with lyrics by Pietro Metastasio, the most requested opera librettist in the eighteenth century. When you listen to that song, you'll realize its Italian nature not only because of the Italian text, but also for the style; Some scholars think that L'incanto degli occhi is a little joke, the composer mimics some of the most characteristic features of a style he knew pretty well, remember he learned composition with Antonio Salieri. It's a lovely song, one of those you can't listen without smiling.

We're listening L'incanto degli occhi performed by Luca Pisaroni accompanied by Justus Zeyen, Measha Brueggergosman's accompanist at her recital. Hope you like it!

L'encanto degli occhi

Da voi, cari lumi,
Di pende il mio stato;
Voi siete i miei Numi,
Voi siete il mio fato.
A vostro talento
Mi sento cangiar,
Ardir m'inspirate,
Se liete splendate;
Se torbidi siete,
Mi fate tremar.

Please follow this link if you need and English translation.

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