ABOUT
What are songs but stories set to music? Whether they are confessional stories of the self or the telling of any variety of narrative, songs are but musical tales.
PROGRAM I:
SCHUBERT & THE GREEKS
German-speakers have long had a fascination with the world of Ancient Greece – to this day, German school children are encouraged to study Ancient Greek as one of the requirements of their curriculum. The roots of this can be traced back to the middle of the 18th century, with the rise of Classicism, and a desire to turn away from the ornate complexity of the Baroque aesthetics.
Franz Schubert and his poet contemporaries were very much swept up in this fascination, and they incorporated Ancient Greek mythology into many of their works. Two of the leading literary poets of this classical movement, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, greatly inspired Schubert, as well as Johann Mayrhofer, Schubert’s very close friend and roommate for many years. In total, Schubert set 47 of Mayrhofer’s poems as song – of those 47 songs, over one-third of them deal with the subject of Ancient Greek antiquity.
presented in partnership with The Poetry Foundation
ARTISTS
Sarah Shafer, soprano | Nicholas Phan, tenor | Douglas Williams, bass-baritone | Myra Huang, piano | Shannon McGinnis, piano
PROGRAM
selected songs by FRANZ SCHUBERT
INTRODUCTION
An die Leier
THE PLAYTHINGS OF THE GODS
Ganymed
Atys
Lied des Orpheus
Antigone und Oedip
Der zürenden Diana
ORESTEIA
Orest auf Tauris
Iphigenia
Der entsühnte Orest
THE GODS
Die Götter Griechenlands
Prometheus
Der Musensohn
Gruppe aus dem Tartarus
POSTLUDE
Grenzen der Menscheit
PROGRAM II:
ONCE UPON A TIME…
Before its meaning was watered down over time to simply refer to any popular sentimental love song, the term ‘ballad’ referred to a strophic song that related a narrative tale. Originally passed down between generations of singers and troubadours, they tended to tell fantastical and legendary tales, often involving stories about knights and their ladies, kings and queens, and all sorts of fantastical creatures, both good and evil. This program looks at many songs that were inspired by this tradition of musical story-telling through song.
ARTISTS
Sarah Shafer, soprano | Nicholas Phan, tenor | Douglas Williams, bass-baritone | Myra Huang, piano | Shannon McGinnis, piano
PROGRAM
INTRODUCTION
GABRIEL FAURÉ: Mélisande's song
KNIGHTS & THEIR LADIES
HENRI DUPARC: Au pays où se fait la guerre
JOHANNES BRAHMS: Es war ein Markgraf uberm Rhein
BENJAMIN BRITTEN: The False Knight Upon the Road
KINGS & QUEENS
ROBERT SCHUMANN: Belsazar
GUSTAV MAHLER: Rheinlegendchen
FRANZ SCHUBERT: Der König in Thule
MAURICE RAVEL: Ballade de la reine morte d'aimer
JAKE HEGGIE: The Haughty Snail King from Songs to the Moon
THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT
FRANZ SCHUBERT: Der Zwerg
R. SCHUMANN: Waldesgespräch
CLARA SCHUMANN: Lorelei
FELIX MENDELSSOHN: Hexenlied
FAIRY TALES
HEGGIE: Yet Gentle Will the Griffin Be from Songs to the Moon
HEGGIE: What the Grey-Winged Fairy Said from Songs to the Moon
ERNEST CHAUSSON: Dans la forêt du charme et de l'enchantement
R. SCHUMANN: Der Sandmann
HUGO WOLF: Elfenlied