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2014/15 GREAT PERFORMERS
The Program
Sponsored by BNY Mellon
Sunday Afternoon, April 12, 2015, at 5:00
Art of the Song
Sarah Connolly, Mezzo-soprano
Joseph Middleton, Piano
SCHUBERT Ellens Gesänge I–III (1825)
Raste, Krieger, Krieg ist aus
Jäger, ruhe von der Jagd!
Ave Maria! Jungfrau mild!
MAHLER Rückert-Lieder (1901–02)
Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder
Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft
Um Mitternacht
Liebst du um Schönheit
Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen
Intermission
COPLAND Selections from 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson (1950)
Nature, the gentlest mother
There came a wind like a bugle
The world feels dusty
I’ve heard an organ talk sometimes
Going to Heaven!
The Chariot
ELGAR Sea Pictures (1899)
Sea Slumber-Song
In Haven (Capri)
Sabbath Morning at Sea
Where corals lie
The Swimmer
Please make certain all your electronic devices are switched off.
BNY Mellon is a Proud Supporter of Great Performers.
This performance is made possible in part by the Josie Robertson Fund for Lincoln Center.
Steinway Piano
Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater
Adrienne Arsht Stage
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Great Performers
BNY Mellon is a Proud Supporter of Great Performers.
Support is provided by Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser, The Florence Gould Foundation,
Audrey Love Charitable Foundation, Great Performers Circle, Chairman’s Council, and
Friends of Lincoln Center.
Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts.
Endowment support for Symphonic Masters is provided by the Leon Levy Fund.
Endowment support is also provided by UBS.
MetLife is the National Sponsor of Lincoln Center.
Movado is a Supporter of Lincoln Center.
United Airlines is a Supporter of Lincoln Center.
WABC-TV is a Supporter of Lincoln Center.
William Hill Estate Winery is a Supporter of Lincoln Center.
UPCOMING ART OF THE SONG EVENT IN ALICE TULLY HALL:
Wednesday Evening, April 29, 2015, at 7:30
Simon Keenlyside, Baritone
Emanuel Ax, Piano
DUPARC: Phidylé; Le manoir de Rosemonde; Chanson triste
DEBUSSY: Nuit d’étoiles; Romance: Voici que le printemps; Beau soir; Les angélus;
Mandoline
POULENC: Le travail du peintre
FAURÉ: Mandoline; En sourdine; Green; Aubade; Madrigal; Le papillon et la fleur
RAVEL: Histoires naturelles
For tickets, call (212) 721-6500 or visit LCGreatPerformers.org. Call the Lincoln Center Info
Request Line at (212) 875-5766 to learn about program cancellations or to request a Great
Performers brochure.
Visit LCGreatPerformers.org for more information relating to this season’s programs and
the 2015–16 Art of the Song series.
Join the conversation: #LCGreatPerfs
We would like to remind you that the sound of coughing and rustling paper might
distract the performers and your fellow audience members.
In consideration of the performing artists and members of the audience, those who must
leave before the end of the performance are asked to do so between pieces. The taking
of photographs and the use of recording equipment are not allowed in the building.
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Snapshot
Great Performers
By Thomas Denny
Timeframe
Today’s program cuts a wide swath across
more than a century of song repertoire. The
songs range from the early Romantic era,
when Schubert virtually invented the art song
as we know it, to the U.S. in the immediate
aftermath of World War II, as Copland forged
his distinctively American approach to both
musical style and subject. Elgar and Mahler,
born within just three years of each other,
represent two quite contrasting European
approaches to song around 1900.
ARTS
Each of the four groupings comes either with
a true title (Sea Pictures, for example) or a
shorthand label that is widely known and
used (as in the Rückert-Lieder or “Ellen’s
Songs”). Yet for all their name recognition,
none of the four is a true song cycle. The
Elgar group, perhaps the most fixed entity of
the lot, is a suite of sea-related songs. The
other three groups are more or less fluid
assemblages of individual songs, none of
which originated from a composer’s vision of
a coherent and fixed cycle.
Although the Elgar and Mahler groups were
first heard publicly in their orchestral versions, and a chamber orchestra arrangement
exists for some of Copland’s Dickinson
songs, all four groups began as piano versions. Both Elgar and Mahler rehearsed or
performed these groups privately from the
piano versions before producing full orchestral scores.
1825
Schubert’s Ellens Gesänge
Sir Walter Scott’s The Talisman.
1899
Elgar’s Sea Pictures
Monet’s Water-Lily Pond.
1902
Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder
First silent feature film, A Trip
to the Moon.
1950
Copland’s 12 Poems of
Emily Dickinson
Ray Bradbury’s Martian
Chronicles.
SCIENCE
1825
Georges Cuvier’s catastrophe
theory of extinction.
1899
Crossing of Antarctic Circle by
the British expedition.
1902
Old Aswan Dam completed
on the Nile River.
1950
Development of external
artificial pacemaker.
IN NEW YORK
1825
First publication of New York
Advertiser.
—Copyright © 2015 by Lincoln Center for the
Performing Arts, Inc.
1899
Cars allowed into Central
Park.
1902
Macy’s move to Herald
Square.
1950
Opening of Port Authority
Bus Terminal.
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Notes on the Program
Great Performers I Notes on the Program
By Thomas Denny
Ellens Gesänge I–III, D.837–39 (1825)
FRANZ SCHUBERT
Born January 31, 1797, in Vienna
Died November 19, 1828, in Vienna
Approximate length: 19 minutes
Schubert’s roughly 600 songs reveal a voracious and wide-ranging literary
taste. He set poems by the greatest German poets, from Goethe to Heine,
as well as poems by minor poets now largely forgotten. “Ellen’s Songs”
remind us of Schubert’s love for the popular literature of his day, available
in German translation. He had discovered Sir Walter Scott as early as
August 1823, when he wrote to a friend that “I am working hard on my
opera [Fierrabras] and reading Walter Scott.” Schubert’s interest in bestsellers was not limited to Scott, whose work took Europe and America by
storm and was translated quickly into several languages. A heart-wrenching
note survives from Schubert’s final illness in 1828, in which he hopes a
friend might send him any of James Fenimore Cooper’s novels.
Schubert turned to Scott’s Lady of the Lake in April 1825, working from
Adam Storck’s German translation. Scott, like Shakespeare and other
dramatists, embedded occasions for singing directly into his plots and provided the song texts. Of the 13 songs in Scott’s Lady of the Lake,
Schubert set seven: the three for Ellen (the enchanting Scottish “lady of
the lake”), one for Norman, one for the captured hunter, and one chorus
each for men’s and women’s ensembles. That summer, while traveling
with friends in the Alps, letters indicate that his “new” Lady of the Lake
songs made quite an impression. Schubert’s friends were especially
“astonished at [his] piety,” as expressed in the “Ave Maria.” The 1826
first edition of the seven songs, Schubert’s Op. 52, included English texts
alongside the German. One of Ellen’s songs, presumably the “Ave Maria,”
was performed publicly in Vienna during the last year of Schubert’s life, in
January 1828.
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Great Performers I Texts and Translations
Ellens Gesänge I–III
Trans.: Adam Storck
Ellen’s Songs I–III
Original text: Sir Walter Scott
Raste Krieger! Krieg ist aus
Soldier, rest! thy warfare o’er
Raste Krieger! Krieg ist aus,
Schlaf den Schlaf, nichts wird dich
wecken,
Träume nicht von wildem Strauss
Nicht von Tag und Nacht voll
Schrecken.
Soldier, rest! thy warfare o’er,
Sleep the sleep that knows not
breaking;
Dream of battled fields no more,
Days of danger, nights of waking.
In der Insel Zauberhallen
Wird ein weicher Schlafgesang
Um das müde Haupt dir wallen
Zu der Zauberharfe Klang.
In our isle’s enchanted hall,
Hands unseen thy couch are strewing,
Fairy strains of music fall,
Every sense in slumber dewing.
Feen mit unsichtbaren Händen
Werden auf dein Lager hin
Holde Schlummerblumen senden,
Die im Zauberlande blühn.
Soldier, rest! thy warfare o’er,
Dream of fighting fields no more;
Sleep the sleep that knows not
breaking,
Morn of toil, nor night of waking.
Nicht der Trommel wildes Rasen,
Nicht des Kriegs Gebietend Wort,
Nicht der Todeshörner Blasen
Scheuchen deinen Schlummer fort.
“No rude sound shall reach thine ear,
Armor’s clang or war-steed champing
Trump nor pibroch summon here
Mustering clan or squadron tramping.
Nicht das Stampfen wilder Pferde,
Nicht der Schreckensruf der Wacht,
Nicht das Bild von Tagsbeschwerde
Stören deine stille Nacht.
Yet the lark’s shrill fife may come
At the daybreak from the fallow,
And the bittern sound his drum
Booming from the sedgy shallow.
Doch der Lerche Morgensänge
Wecken sanft dein schlummernd Ohr,
Und des Sumpfgefieders Klänge
Steigend aus Geschilf und Rohr.
Ruder sounds shall none be near,
Guards nor warders challenge here,
Here’s no war-steed’s neigh and
champing,
Shouting clans or squadrons stamping.”
Jäger, ruhe von der Jagd!
Huntsman, rest! thy chase is done
Jäger, ruhe von der Jagd!
Weicher Schlummer soll dich decken,
Träume nicht, wenn Sonn’ erwacht,
Dass Jagdhörner dich erwecken.
“Huntsman, rest! thy chase is done;
While our slumbrous spells assail ye,
Dream not, with the rising sun,
Bugles here shall sound reveille.
Schlaf! der Hirsch ruht in der Höhle,
Bei dir sind die Hunde wach,
Schlaf, nicht quäl’ es deine Seele,
Dass dein edles Ross erlag.
Sleep! the deer is in his den;
Sleep! thy hounds are by thee lying;
Sleep! nor dream in yonder glen
How thy gallant steed lay dying.
(Please turn the page quietly.)
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Great Performers I Texts and Translations
Jäger, ruhe von der Jagd!
Weicher Schlummer soll dich decken;
Wenn der junge Tag erwacht,
Wird kein Jägerhorn dich wecken.
Huntsman, rest! thy chase is done;
Think not of the rising sun,
For at dawning to assail ye
Here no bugles sound reveille.”
Ave Maria! Jungfrau mild!
Ave Maria! maiden mild!
Ave Maria! Jungfrau mild!
Erhöre einer Jungfrau Flehen,
Aus diesem Felsen starr und wild
Soll mein Gebet zu dir hin wehen.
Ave Maria! maiden mild!
Listen to a maiden’s prayer!
Thou canst hear though from the wild,
Thou canst save amid despair.
Wir schlafen sicher bis zum Morgen,
Ob Menschen noch so grausam
sind.
O Jungfrau, sieh der Jungfrau Sorgen,
O Mutter, hör ein bittend Kind!
Safe may we sleep beneath thy care,
Though banished, outcast, and
reviled—
Maiden! hear a maiden’s prayer;
Mother, hear a suppliant child!
Ave Maria!
Ave Maria unbefleckt!
Wenn wir auf diesen Fels hinsinken
Zum Schlaf, und uns dein Schutz
bedeckt,
Wird weich der harte Fels uns
dünken.
Ave Maria! undefiled!
The flinty couch we now must share
Shall seem with down of eider piled,
Du lächelst, Rosendüfte wehen
In dieser dumpfen Felsenkluft.
O Mutter, höre Kindes Flehen,
O Jungfrau, eine Jungfrau ruft!
If thy protection hover there.
The murky cavern’s heavy air
Shall breathe of balm if thou hast
smiled;
Then, Maiden! hear a maiden’s prayer,
Mother, list a suppliant child!
Ave Maria!
Ave Maria! Reine Magd!
Der Erde und der Luft Dämonen,
Von deines Auges Huld verjagt,
Sie können hier nicht bei uns
wohnen.
Ave Maria! stainless styled!
Foul demons of the earth and air,
From this their wonted haunt exiled,
Shall flee before thy presence fair.
Wir woll’n uns still dem Schicksal
beugen,
Da uns dein heilger Trost anweht;
Der Jungfrau wolle hold dich neigen,
Dem Kind, das für den Vater fleht!
Ave Maria!
We bow us to our lot of care,
Beneath thy guidance reconciled:
Hear for a maid a maiden’s prayer,
And for a father hear a child!
Ave Maria!
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Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Rückert-Lieder (1901–02)
GUSTAV MAHLER
Born July 7, 1860, in Kališteˇ, Czech Republic
Died May 18, 1911, in Vienna
Approximate length: 20 minutes
Mahler earned his living chiefly as an opera conductor. He worked his way
aggressively up the ladder of European opera houses. By the time he composed
the Rückert-Lieder, he was in charge of the Vienna court opera, the pinnacle of
his field. His exacting standards and disdain for well-worn “traditions” in the
opera house led to productions that are still legendary in the annals of opera.
During the off-season, Mahler escaped to the Alps for restorative summers of
outdoor activity and intense composition.
Mahler’s compositional output was unusual, limited to massive symphonies
and solo songs. He turned to the poetry of Friedrich Rückert in 1901, at a critical moment in his creative maturation. He had just completed his G-major
Symphony, the fourth and last of the series that drew inspiration from the folk
material of Des Knaben Wunderhorn. He was beginning work on his Fifth
Symphony, which would be purely instrumental.
The year 1901 also marked a critical moment in Mahler’s personal life. In
February he nearly died from an intestinal hemorrhage. Biographers have suggested that the deeper, darker elements in the Rückert-Lieder, especially in
“Um Mitternacht” and “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen,” are a reaction to his close scrape with mortality. Similar psychoanalytic speculations surround his impetuous courtship of the much younger Alma Schindler later that
year. They married early in 1902, with Alma already pregnant.
Mahler never thought of the Rückert songs as a cycle. Four were written in
1901, before he met Alma. He composed the fifth, “Liebst du um Schönheit,”
in 1902 as an intimate gift for his new wife. Mahler never orchestrated the
song he wrote for Alma, nor was it on the program in 1905 when the other
four, along with the Kindertotenlieder, also settings of Rückert poems,
received their premiere with orchestra. Initially all five songs were published
separately. Later the publisher packaged them together, adding two unrelated
songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, as “Seven Recent Songs.”
Although they make a wonderful group, there is no standard order to their performance. Few singers perform the songs in the order in which they were
published. Generally, singers choose to end the cycle with either the darkly
dramatic “Um Mitternacht” or the transcendent “Ich bin der Welt abhanden
gekommen.” Singers shuffle the remaining songs freely. Today’s performance
follows the order used by Janet Baker. “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” comes last, while “Um Mitternacht” sits at the mid-point of the group.
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Great Performers I Texts and Translations
Rückert-Lieder
Text: Friedrich Rückert
Rückert Songs
Trans.: Copyright © by Emily Ezust
Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder
Look not into my songs
Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder!
Meine Augen schlag’ ich nieder,
Wie ertappt auf böser Tat;
Selber darf ich nicht getrauen,
Ihrem Wachsen zuzuschauen:
Deine Neugier ist Verrat.
Look not into my songs!
My eyes I lower,
as if I’ve been caught in an evil deed.
I can’t even trust myself
to watch them grow.
Your curiosity is a betrayal!
Bienen, wenn sie Zellen bauen,
Lassen auch nicht zu sich schauen,
Schauen selber auch nicht zu.
Wenn die reifen Honigwaben
Sie zu Tag gefördert haben,
Dann vor allem nasche du!
Bees, when they build their cells,
also do not let anyone observe them,
even themselves.
If the rich honeycombs
are brought out to the light of day,
then you shall taste them before
everyone else!
Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft
I breathed a gentle fragrance
Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft.
Im Zimmer stand
Ein Zweig der Linde,
Ein Angebinde
Von lieber Hand.
Wie lieblich war der Lindenduft!
I breathed a gentle fragrance.
In the room stood
a sprig of linden,
a gift
from a dear hand.
How lovely was the fragrance of
linden!
Wie lieblich ist der Lindenduft!
Das Lindenreis
Brachst du gelinde;
Ich atme leis
Im Duft der Linde
Der Liebe linden Duft.
How lovely is the fragrance of linden!
That twig of linden
you broke off so gently;
softly I breathe in
the fragrance of linden,
the gentle fragrance of love.
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Great Performers I Texts and Translations
Um Mitternacht
At midnight
Um Mitternacht
Hab ich gewacht
Und aufgeblickt zum Himmel;
Kein Stern vom Sterngewimmel
Hat mir gelacht
Um Mitternacht.
At midnight
I awoke
and gazed up to heaven;
no star in the entire mass
did smile down at me
at midnight.
Um Mitternacht
Hab ich gedacht
Hinaus in dunkle Schranken.
Es hat kein Lichtgedanken
Mir Trost gebracht
Um Mitternacht.
At midnight
I projected my thoughts
out past the dark barriers.
No thought of light
brought me comfort
at midnight.
Um Mitternacht
Nahm ich in acht
Die Schläge meines Herzens.
Ein einzger Puls des Schmerzens
War angefacht
Um Mitternacht.
At midnight
I paid close attention
to the beating of my heart.
One single pulse of agony
flared up
at midnight.
Um Mitternacht
Kämpft ich die Schlacht,
O Menschheit, deiner Leiden;
Nicht konnt ich sie entscheiden
Mit meiner Macht
Um Mitternacht.
At midnight
I fought the battle,
O mankind, of your suffering;
I could not decide it
with my strength
at midnight.
Um Mitternacht
Hab ich die Macht
In deine Hand gegeben:
Herr über Tod und Leben,
Du hältst die Wacht
Um Mitternacht.
At midnight
I surrendered my strength
into your hands:
Lord! Over death and life,
you keep watch
at midnight.
(Please do not turn the page until the song’s completion.)
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Great Performers I Texts and Translations
Liebst du um Schönheit
If you love for beauty
Liebst du um Schönheit, o nicht
mich liebe!
Liebe die Sonne, sie trägt ein
goldnes Haar!
If you love for beauty, oh, do not
love me!
Love the sun, she has golden hair!
Liebst du um Jugend, o nicht mich
liebe!
Liebe den Frühling, der jung ist
jedes Jahr!
If you love for youth, oh, do not love
me!
Love the spring; it is young every
year!
Liebst du um Schätze, o nicht mich
liebe!
Liebe die Meerfrau, sie hat viel
Perlen klar!
If you love for treasure, oh, do not
love me!
Love the mermaid; she has many
clear pearls!
Liebst du um Liebe, o ja—mich
liebe!
Liebe mich immer, dich lieb ich
immerdar!
If you love for love, oh yes, do love
me!
Love me ever, I’ll love you
evermore!
Ich bin der Welt abhanden
gekommen
I am lost to the world
Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen,
Mit der ich sonst viele Zeit verdorben;
I am lost to the world
with which I used to waste so much
time,
it has heard nothing from me for so
long
that it may very well believe that I am
dead!
Sie hat so lange nichts von mir
vernommen,
Sie mag wohl glauben, ich sei
gestorben!
Es ist mir auch gar nichts daran
gelegen,
Ob sie mich für gestorben hält.
Ich kann auch gar nichts sagen
dagegen,
Denn wirklich bin ich gestorben der
Welt.
Ich bin gestorben dem Weltgetümmel,
Und ruh’ in einem stillen Gebiet!
Ich leb’ allein in meinem Himmel,
In meinem Lieben, in meinem Lied.
It is of no consequence to me
whether it thinks me dead;
I cannot deny it,
for I really am dead to the world.
I am dead to the world’s tumult,
and I rest in a quiet realm!
I live alone in my heaven,
in my love and in my song!
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Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Selections from 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson (1950)
AARON COPLAND
Born November 14, 1900, in Brooklyn
Died December 2, 1990, in North Tarrytown, New York
Approximate length: 13 minutes
By the time Copland composed his 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson in 1950, he
was firmly established as one of the leading American composers of the
20th century. Copland’s stylistic range was broad. With works such as the
great ballets (Billy the Kid, Rodeo, Appalachian Spring), along with El salón
México and Fanfare for the Common Man, Copland had created a style
accessible to a broad audience. But he had also composed a substantial body
of work in a more challenging (one might say more modernist) idiom. One of
the intriguing things about the 12 Dickinson songs is that they reflect quite
a bit of Copland’s broad stylistic range.
Copland initially “fell in love” with a single Dickinson poem, “The Chariot.”
He said that he “had no intention of composing a song cycle.” But, he went
on, “I continued to add songs one at a time until I had 12. The poems themselves gave me direction.” As he got more immersed in the project, Copland
visited the poet’s home in Amherst, Massachusetts. Although he ultimately
preferred the 12 songs as a cycle, he gave his implicit blessing to singers to
pick and choose among the songs, saying that each was “meant to be complete in itself.” Further confusing the situation, in 1958 Copland orchestrated
just eight of the 12, including five from today’s program.
Copland dedicated each of the songs to a living composer, including David
Diamond, Elliott Carter, Alberto Ginastera, and Lukas Foss. After the first performance in New York in May 1950, Copland reported in a letter, “The songs
went well with composer friends and audience but got roasted in the press.”
Today’s selection—songs 1, 2, 4, 10, 11, and 12—concentrates on the beginning and the end of the published set.
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Great Performers I Texts and Translations
Selections from 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson
Text: Emily Dickinson
Nature, the gentlest mother
Nature, the gentlest mother
Impatient of no child,
The feeblest or the waywardest,—
Her admonition mild
In forest and the hill
By traveller is heard,
Restraining rampant squirrel
Or too impetuous bird.
How fair her conversation,
A summer afternoon,—
Her household, her assembly;
And when the sun goes down
Her voice among the aisles
Incites the timid prayer
Of the minutest cricket,
The most unworthy flower.
When all the children sleep
She turns as long away
As will suffice to light her lamps;
Then, bending from the sky,
With infinite affection
An infiniter care,
Her golden finger on her lip,
Wills silence everywhere.
There came a wind like a bugle
There came a wind like a bugle,
It quivered through the grass,
And a green chill upon the heat
So ominous did pass
We barred the windows and the doors
As from an emerald ghost
The doom’s electric moccasin
That very instant passed.
On a strange mob of panting trees,
And fences fled away,
And rivers where the houses ran
The living looked that day.
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Great Performers I Texts and Translations
The bell within the steeple wild,
The flying tidings whirled.
How much can come and much can go,
And yet abide the world!
The world feels dusty
The world feels dusty,
when we stop to die…
We want the dew then
Honors taste dry…
Flags vex a dying face
But the least fan
stirred by a friend’s hand
Cools like the rain
Mine be the ministry
when thy thirst comes…
Dews of thyself to fetch
and holy balms.
I’ve heard an organ talk sometimes
I’ve heard an organ talk sometimes
In a cathedral aisle
And understood no word it said
Yet held my breath the while...
And risen up and gone away,
A more Bernardine girl
And know not what was done to me
In that old hallowed aisle.
Going to Heaven!
Going to Heaven!
I don’t know when,
Pray do not ask me how,—
Indeed I’m too astonished
To think of answering you!
Going to Heaven!—
How dim it sounds!
And yet it will be done
As sure as flocks go home at night
Unto the shepherd’s arm!
(Please turn the page quietly.)
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Great Performers I Texts and Translations
Perhaps you’re going too!
Who knows?
If you should get there first
Save just a little place for me
Close to the two I lost!
The smallest “robe” will fit me,
And just a bit of “crown”;
For you know we do not mind our dress
When we are going home.
Going to Heaven!
I’m glad I don’t believe it
For it would stop my breath,
And I’d like to look a little more
At such a curious earth!
I am glad they did believe it
Whom I have never found
Since the mighty autumn afternoon
I left them in the ground.
The Chariot
Because I would not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The carriage held but just ourselves—
and Immortality.
We slowly drove—he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too
For His Civility—
We passed the school, where children played,
Their lessons scarcely done
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
We paused before a house that seemed
a swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then ’tis centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses’ heads
Were toward eternity.
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Great Performers I Notes on the Program
Sea Pictures, Op. 37 (1899)
EDWARD ELGAR
Born June 2, 1857, in Broadheath, England
Died February 23, 1934, in Worcester, England
Approximate length: 23 minutes
Elgar composed his Sea Pictures at a breakthrough moment in his career,
between two works that established his reputation. He had just completed
the Enigma Variations and was about to begin his strikingly original oratorio,
The Dream of Gerontius. It was a breakthrough moment in British music history as well. When Elgar emerged as the first of the great British composers
at the turn of the 20th century, no British composer had reached true international stature for two centuries. England’s creative drought had been so
prolonged that some Germans disparagingly dubbed it “the land without
music.” Holst’s reaction on hearing the Enigma Variations echoed this: “here
was music the like of which had not appeared in this country since Purcell’s
death” in 1695.
Elgar was a complex person. On the one hand, he could act the part of an
embittered outsider, a Catholic in a Protestant country and a provincial son of
a craftsman seeking recognition in the world of high culture. On the other
hand, Elgar was a delightfully playful friend, ever ready to invent entertaining
nicknames or create ciphers or puzzles to hide meanings from all but his
inner circle. The Enigma Variations are the most famous example of this side
of Elgar.
Sea Pictures was commissioned for performance at the 1899 Norwich
Festival, one of the provincial festivals that provided Elgar with much of his
early success and income. He composed four new songs at Birchwood cottage, his summer compositional retreat, while he was still tweaking the
finale of the Enigma Variations. “In Haven (Capri)” is a reworking of an 1897
song. In August, he rehearsed the songs from piano score with Clara Butt, a
rising young contralto.
Sea Pictures premiered with orchestra at Norwich on October 5. A performance in London followed two days later. A few weeks later—and this was a
clear sign of Elgar’s growing reputation—Ada Crossley gave a command performance of two of his Sea Pictures for the 80-year-old Queen Victoria at
Balmoral. In the 1899 piano-vocal edition, Elgar astutely provided alternate passages in two songs to avoid the lowest ranges of the version written for Butt.
Musicologist Thomas Denny, Professor Emeritus at Skidmore College, has
published and lectured extensively on the music of Franz Schubert, as well
as 18th- and 19th-century operatic topics.
—Copyright © 2015 by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.
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Great Performers I Texts and Translations
Sea Slumber-Song
Text: Roden Noel
Sea-birds are asleep,
The world forgets to weep,
Sea murmurs her soft slumber-song
On the shadowy sand
Of this elfin land;
“I, the Mother mild,
Hush thee, O my child,
Forget the voices wild!
Isles in elfin light
Dream, the rocks and caves,
Lulled by whispering waves,
Veil their marbles bright,
Foam glimmers faintly white
Upon the shelly sand
Of this elfin land;
Sea-sound, like violins,
To slumber woos and wins,
I murmur my soft slumber-song,
Leave woes, and wails, and sins,
Ocean’s shadowy might
Breathes good-night,
Good-night!”
In Haven (Capri)
Text: Caroline Alice Elgar
Closely let me hold thy hand,
Storms are sweeping sea and land;
Love alone will stand.
Closely cling, for waves beat fast,
Foam-flakes cloud the hurrying blast;
Love alone will last.
Kiss my lips, and softly say:
“Joy, sea-swept, may fade to-day;
Love alone will stay.”
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Great Performers I Texts and Translations
Sabbath Morning at Sea
Text: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
The ship went on with solemn face;
To meet the darkness on the deep,
The solemn ship went onward.
I bowed down weary in the place;
For parting tears and present sleep
Had weighed mine eyelids downward.
The new sight, the new wondrous sight!
The waters around me, turbulent,
The skies, impassive o’er me,
Calm in a moonless, sunless light,
As glorified by even the intent
Of holding the day glory!
Love me, sweet friends, this sabbath day.
The sea sings round me while ye roll
Afar the hymn, unaltered,
And kneel, where once I knelt to pray,
And bless me deeper in your soul
Because your voice has faltered.
And though this sabbath comes to me
Without the stolèd minister,
And chanting congregation,
God’s Spirit shall give comfort. He
Who brooded soft on waters drear,
Creator on creation.
He shall assist me to look higher,
Where keep the saints, with harp and song,
An endless sabbath morning,
And, on that sea commixed with fire,
Oft drop their eyelids raised too long
To the full Godhead’s burning.
(Please do not turn the page until the song’s completion.)
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Great Performers I Texts and Translations
Where corals lie
Text: Richard Garnett
The deeps have music soft and low
When winds awake the airy spry,
It lures me, lures me on to go
And see the land where corals lie.
By mount and mead, by lawn and rill,
When night is deep, and moon is high,
That music seeks and finds me still,
And tells me where the corals lie.
Yes, press my eyelids close, ’tis well;
But far the rapid fancies fly
The rolling worlds of wave and shell,
And all the lands where corals lie.
Thy lips are like a sunset glow,
Thy smile is like a morning sky,
Yet leave me, leave me, let me go
And see the land where corals lie.
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Great Performers I Texts and Translations
The Swimmer
Text: Adam Lindsay Gordon
With short, sharp, violent lights made vivid,
To southward far as the sight can roam,
Only the swirl of the surges livid,
The seas that climb and the surfs that comb.
Only the crag and the cliff to nor’ward,
And the rocks receding, and reefs flung forward,
Waifs wreck’d seaward and wasted shoreward,
On shallows sheeted with flaming foam.
A grim, grey coast and a seaboard ghastly,
And shores trod seldom by feet of men—
Where the batter’d hull and the broken mast lie,
They have lain embedded these long years ten.
Love! when we wandered here together,
Hand in hand through the sparkling weather,
From the heights and hollows of fern and heather,
God surely loved us a little then.
The skies were fairer, the shores were firmer—
The blue sea over the bright sand roll’d;
Babble and prattle, and ripple and murmur,
Sheen of silver and glamour of gold.
So, girt with tempest and wing’d with thunder
And clad with lightning and shod with sleet,
And strong winds treading the swift waves under
The flying rollers with frothy feet.
One gleam like a bloodshot sword-blade swims on
The sky line, staining the green gulf crimson,
A death-stroke fiercely dealt by a dim sun
That strikes through his stormy winding sheet.
O, brave white horses! you gather and gallop,
The storm sprite loosens the gusty reins;
Now the stoutest ship were the frailest shallop
In your hollow backs, on your high-arched manes.
I would ride as never man has ridden
In your sleepy, swirling surges hidden;
To gulfs foreshadow’d through strifes forbidden,
Where no light wearies and no love wanes.
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PETER WARREN
Meet the Artists
Great Performers I Meet the Artists
Sarah Connolly
Sarah Connolly is one of the foremost British mezzo-sopranos. She is a fellow of the Royal College of Music, where she studied piano and singing.
Her operatic highlights include Fricka (Das Rheingold and Die Walküre) and
Brangäne (Tristan und Isolde) at the Royal Opera House–Covent Garden,
Dido (Dido and Aeneas) at La Scala, Komponist (Ariadne auf Naxos) and
Clairon (Capriccio) at the Metropolitan Opera, the title role in Giulio Cesare
in Egitto and Brangäne at the Glyndebourne Festival, Sesto (La clemenza
di Tito) and the title role in Ariodante at the Aix-en-Provence Festival,
Phèdre (Hippolyte et Aricie) at the Paris National Opera, and Nerone
(L’incoronazione di Poppea) at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the
Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.
Ms. Connolly’s concert engagements include appearances at the
Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Lucerne, Salzburg, Tanglewood, and Three Choirs
festivals, and at the BBC Proms, where, in 2009, she was a memorable
guest soloist at the Last Night. Much in demand with the world’s great
orchestras for the great lyric mezzo-soprano repertoire, Ms. Connolly
works regularly with conductors such as Ivor Bolton, Riccardo Chailly,
Mark Elder, Daniel Harding, Philippe Herreweghe, Vladimir Jurowski,
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Simon Rattle. She has also performed recitals
at such venues as the Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall,
Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Louvre in Paris, and
the Internationale Hugo-Wolf-Akademie in Stuttgart, as well as at the
Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, and Schubertiade Schwarzenberg festivals.
Ms. Connolly’s many recordings include a 2006 album of Elgar’s Sea Pictures that earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Vocal Performance.
She has also been nominated for Laurence Olivier and TMA Awards, and
has won Edison, Gramophone, and South Bank awards. Ms. Connolly was
made a Commander of the British Empire in 2010, and in 2012 won a
Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award in the singer category.
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Great Performers I Meet the Artists
SUSSIE AHLBERG
Joseph Middleton
Joseph Middleton specializes in art
song accompaniment and chamber
music. He performs and records
with many of the world’s finest
singers and is a regular guest at festivals including Aix-en-Provence,
Aldeburgh, Brighton, City of London,
Edinburgh, Ravinia, Toronto, Vancouver, and West Cork. In March he
was appointed director of the Leeds
Lieder festival.
Recent and forthcoming highlights
include appearances at Vienna’s Konzerthaus, the Bath Mozartfest, and the
Brighton Festival with Christopher Maltman, a UK tour of Winterreise with
Thomas Allen, a tour of South America with Christiane Karg, and recitals in
Germany, Austria, and Luxembourg, as well as returns to London’s Wigmore
Hall with Lucy Crowe, Karg, Kitty Whately, and the Myrthen Ensemble. Mr.
Middleton also curates his own Duparc series for BBC Radio 3 with John Mark
Ainsley, Lisa Milne, Anna Stéphany, and Renata Pokupic
´.
Mr. Middleton has developed a special relationship with the BBC through his
work with its New Generation Artists Scheme and has made numerous live
broadcasts of solo, chamber, and song repertoire for BBC Radio 3. His discography includes Elgar in Sussex with Felicity Lott, a recital CD with Amanda
Roocroft, Fleurs with Carolyn Sampson, and the lieder of Ludwig Thuille with
Sophie Bevan and Jennifer Johnston.
Born in Gloucestershire, Mr. Middleton graduated from the University of
Birmingham before studying piano on an EMI scholarship at the Royal
Academy of Music.
Lincoln Center’s Great Performers
Initiated in 1965, Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series offers classical and
contemporary music performances from the world’s outstanding symphony
orchestras, vocalists, chamber ensembles, and recitalists. One of the most
significant music presentation series in the world, Great Performers runs from
October through June with offerings in Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall,
Alice Tully Hall, Walter Reade Theater, and other performance spaces around
New York City. From symphonic masterworks, lieder recitals, and Sunday
morning coffee concerts to films and groundbreaking productions specially
commissioned by Lincoln Center, Great Performers offers a rich spectrum of
programming throughout the season.
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Great Performers
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) serves three primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, national leader in arts and education and community relations, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. A presenter of
more than 3,000 free and ticketed events, performances, tours, and educational activities annually, LCPA offers 15 programs, series, and festivals including American Songbook, Great Performers, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln
Center Out of Doors, Midsummer Night Swing, the Mostly Mozart Festival,
and the White Light Festival, as well as the Emmy Award–winning Live From
Lincoln Center, which airs nationally on PBS. As manager of the Lincoln
Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center
complex and the 11 resident organizations. In addition, LCPA led a $1.2 billion
campus renovation, completed in October 2012.
Lincoln Center Programming Department
Jane Moss, Ehrenkranz Artistic Director
Hanako Yamaguchi, Director, Music Programming
Jon Nakagawa, Director, Contemporary Programming
Jill Sternheimer, Acting Director, Public Programming
Lisa Takemoto, Production Manager
Charles Cermele, Producer, Contemporary Programming
Kate Monaghan, Associate Director, Programming
Claudia Norman, Producer, Public Programming
Mauricio Lomelin, Associate Producer, Contemporary Programming
Julia Lin, Associate Producer
Nicole Cotton, Production Coordinator
Regina Grande, Assistant to the Artistic Director
Luna Shyr, Programming Publications Editor
Olivia Fortunato, House Seat Coordinator
Ms. Connolly and Mr. Middleton’s representation:
Askonas Holt
www.askonasholt.co.uk
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The Table is Set
A
merican Table Café and Bar by
Marcus Samuelsson in Alice Tully Hall
is a great dining option available to Lincoln
Center patrons, along with Lincoln
Ristorante on Hearst Plaza, indie food &
wine in the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film
Center, ‘wichcraft in the David
Rubenstein Atrium, The Grand Tier in the
Metropolitan Opera house, the new
Lincoln Center Kitchen in Avery Fisher
Hall, and the Espresso Bar, also in Avery
Fisher.
Marcus Samuelsson, the youngest chef
ever to be awarded a three-star review
by The New York Times and the winner
of the James Beard Award for both
“Rising Star Chef” (1999) and “Best
Chef: New York City” (2003), crafted
the menu along with long-time associate
Nils Noren, MSG’s Vice President of
Restaurant Operations. American Table
Cafe and Bar by Marcus Samuelsson
serves food that celebrates the diversity
of American cuisine, drawing on influences and regions from across the
country. Dishes on the menu, which is
offered for both lunch and dinner,
include Smoked Caesar Salad, Shrimp
Roll, and Chocolate Cardamom Panna
Cotta. The bar features a cocktail menu
designed by consulting master mixologist, Eben Klemm, as well as a selection
of reasonably-priced wines.
Marcus Samuelsson’s recently published memoir, Yes, Chef, chronicles his
remarkable journey from being orphaned
at age three in his native Ethiopia to his
adoption by a family in Göteborg,
Sweden, where he first learned to cook
by helping his grandmother prepare
roast chicken. He went on to train in
top kitchens in Europe before arriving in
New York, first taking the reins at
Aquavit. He has won the television
competition Top Chef Masters on Bravo
Marcus Samuelsson
as well as top honors on Chopped All
Stars: Judges Remix. His current New
York restaurant, the wildly successful
Red Rooster, is located in his home
base of Harlem.
American Table Cafe and Bar seats 73
inside, plus more space outside on the
Alice Tully Hall Plaza. Diller Scofidio +
Renfro, the designers of the critically
acclaimed Alice Tully Hall, have transformed the glass-walled space with
lounge-like furniture in warm, rich colors,
a long communal couch, tree-trunk
tables, and lighting that can be dimmed
to adjust the mood. The design—an
eclectic reinterpretation of Americana—
draws its inspiration from the cafe’s
culinary focus. Call 212.671.4200 for
hours of operation.
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Learn More, Take the Tour
B R I A N S TA N T O N
LINCOLN CENTER, THE WORLD’S
LEADING PERFORMING ARTS
CENTER, is a premiere New York
destination for visitors from around
the globe. Did you know that tours of
its iconic campus have made the Top
Ten Tour list of NYC&CO, the official
guide to New York City, for two
year’s running? All tour options offer
an inside look at what happens on
and off its stages, led by guides with
an encyclopedic knowledge of
Visitors get a concert preview at rehearsal
Lincoln Center, great anecdotes, and
a passion for the arts. The daily one-hour Spotlight Tour covers the Center’s history along
with current activities, and visits at least three of its famous theaters. Visitors can now also
explore broadcast operations inside the Tisch WNET-TV satellite studio on Broadway, and
see Lincoln Center’s newest venue, the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, home to the
largest Plasma screen in the nation on public display.
Want more? A number of specialty tours are available:
RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL & LINCOLN CENTER COMBO TOUR Experience two of
New York City’s “must-see” attractions with one ticket. This package combines the Music
Hall’s Stage Door tour of its Art Deco interior—which might include meeting a world-famous
Radio City Rockette—with Lincoln Center’s Spotlight Tour, where a sneak peak at a rehearsal
happens whenever possible.
ART & ARCHITECTURE TOUR Lincoln Center’s 16-acre campus has one of New York
City’s greatest modern art collections, with paintings and sculpture by such internationally
acclaimed artists as Marc Chagall, Henry Moore, and Jasper Johns. The tour not only
examines these fine art masterworks, it also explores the buildings and public spaces of
visionary architects like Philip Johnson, as well as the innovative concepts of architects
Diller Scofidio+ Renfro with FXFOWLE, Beyer Blinder Belle, and Tod Williams Bille Tsien,
designers of the campus’ $1.2 billion renovation.
Inside the David H. Koch
For more information, click on LincolnCenter.org/Tours.To book a
tour, call (212) 875.5350, email [email protected], or
visit the Tour and Information Desk in the David Rubenstein
Atrium at Lincoln Center, located on Broadway between 62nd and
63rd Streets. –Joy Chutz
Theater
B R I A N S TA N T O N
EVEN MORE TOUR OPTIONS Lincoln Center offers Foreign
Language Tours in five languages: French, German, Italian,
Japanese, and Spanish, in addition to American Sign
Language tours. Visitors with a special interest in jazz can take
the Jazz at Lincoln Center Tour of the organization’s gorgeous
venues at the Times Warner Center, the only facilities created
specifically for the performance of jazz music. And Group Tours
of more than 15 people get a discount.