The poet Friedrich Klopstock dedicated many poems to his fiancée, later his wife, Margareta Moller; she often appears hidden under the name Cidli. Margareta and Friedrich met in 1751 and married in 1754. Sadly, the young woman died in childbirth in 1758, and the poet mourned her for many years, also in his verses. This is the case, for example, of this week’s poem, Die Sommernacht [The Summer Night], written in 1766 and included in his Oden. The three stanzas are a meditation on loss; the memories of nights spent with his beloved, now deceased, prevent the poetic voice from enjoying the beauty that nature continues to offer him.
In 1815, Franz Schubert set these verses to music in a little-known song that I find truly beautiful. The first two stanzas are a recitative, with delicate accompaniment. In the third stanza, starting from the second line, a fleeting melody appears—so brief and so lovely that it makes us long in vain for it to return. We’ll listen to Die Sommernacht performed by Sarah Walker and Graham Johnson, and we’re fortunate to be able to replay it as many times as we need to capture that elusive melody.
A Schubert Lied about a summer night, which we’ll hear at the opening concert in Vilabertran, seemed to me the perfect way to begin this August and the posts dedicated to the Schubertíada.
As every year, I’ll be grouping the concerts by date, and each week I’ll introduce a song we haven’t featured before. As usual, you’ll also find a list of songs we have listened to, along with links to each one. Just in case you’d like to revisit them before attending the Schubertíada (I hope you will!).
Wenn der Schimmer von dem Monde nun herab
In die Wälder sich ergiesst, und Gerüche
Mit den Düften von der Linde
In den Kühlungen wehn:
So umschatten mich Gedanken an das Grab
Meiner Geliebten, und ich seh’ im Walde
Nur es dämmern, und es weht mir
Von der Blüte nicht her.
Ich genoss einst, o ihr Toten, es mit euch!
Wie umwehten uns der Duft und die Kühlung,
Wie verschönt warst von dem Monde,
Du, o schöne Natur!
When the gleam of the moon now flows down
on the wood, and the scents
in the breezes from the linden trees
blow in the coolness:
So shadows surround my thoughts of the grave
of my beloved, and I see in the wood
only twilight, and the breezes do not
send me scents from the blossoms.
I enjoyed it once with you, O Dead ones!
How the scents and the cool breezes blew about us,
how beautiful the moon was,
and you, O fair Nature!
(translation by Emily Ezust)
Thursday 14 August: Carles Pachon & Berta Brull
(I think this is the first time that none of the songs in a Schubertíada recital program have been heard on Liederabend so far. One more reason to go to the concert, if we needed any!)
Satudarday 16 August: Elionor Martínez, Ferran Albrich & Victoria Guerrero
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