Nick to perform at Music in the Abbey Festival

xantha

Nick will be performing with the Orchestra of St. John's and soprano Sally Matthews as part of the Music in the Abbey Festival.

Details:
Sunday 14 September 2008 at 7.30pm
Dorchester Abbey, Dorchester , Oxon

Programme:
Wesley & Stanford Motets
R Strauss Four Last Songs
Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem

John Lubbock (conductor)
Sally Matthews (soprano), Nicholas Garrett (bass)
Orchestra of St John's, OSJ Voices

Ticket Prices: range from £12 - 25.00
To book online CLICK HERE

From the website....
"To end the festival, we are delighted to welcome back Sally Matthews, whose performances have been unmissable over the last few years. Sally will perform Richard Strauss’s swansong, Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) and will be joined by another Music in the Abbey favourite, Nicholas Garrett for Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem). An unmissable evening, which is bound to be a sell-out event."

Thanks for the information Novice

xaria · Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 9:42 pm Post subject:

Excellent! Smile

Will have to try and get to that. I did Brahm's German Requiem in my first yr so it'll be intersting to hear a professional performance of it. x
_________________
'A life in music is a life beautifully spent.' (Pavarotti)

novice · Joined: Feb 12, 2006 Posts: 541

Xaria, hope you do get to go, I will sit here and envy you!

Listening to Nick gives me shivers down my spine without the Church, what would it feel like to hear that!?

See you soon!!
_________________
Music Speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it Rest, Heals the Heart and makes it whole - Flows from the heavens to the Soul!

Connie · Joined: Mar 02, 2006 Posts: 368

I would love to be able to go to this performance, but then again I want to go to every performance that Nick is a part of. Very Happy

xantha · Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 5:03 pm Post subject:

I know that Nick always encourages his Garrett Girls to research the opera / music they are going to see performed to get a deeper appreciation of the music. With this in mind, here's a few details of the piece Nick will be performing at the Music in the Abbey Festival at Dorchester Cathedral.

The Four Last Songs (Vier letzte Lieder) for soprano and orchestra were the final works of Richard Strauss, composed in 1948 when the composer was 84. The premiere was given in London on 22 May 1950, featuring soprano Kirsten Flagstad accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler. Strauss did not live to hear it.

Background

Strauss had come across the poem Im Abendrot (At Sunset) by Joseph Eichendorff, which he felt had a special meaning for him. He set its text to music in May of 1948. Strauss had also recently been given a copy of the complete poems of Hermann Hesse, and he arranged three of his works – Frühling (Spring), September, and Beim Schlafengehen (Going to Sleep) – for soprano and orchestra. (According to Arnold, a fifth song was unfinished at Strauss' death.)

There is no indication that Strauss conceived these songs as a complete set. In dictionaries published as late as 1954, the three Hesse songs were still listed as a group, separate from the earlier Eichendorff song setting. The overall title Four Last Songs was provided by his friend Ernst Roth, the chief editor of Boosey and Hawkes. It was Roth who categorized them as a single unit and put them into the order that most performances now follow: Frühling, September, Beim Schlafengehen, Im Abendrot.

Subject matter
The songs deal with death and were written shortly before Strauss himself died. However, instead of the typical Romantic defiance, these Four Last Songs are suffused with a sense of calm, acceptance, and completeness.

The settings are for a solo soprano voice given remarkable soaring melodies against a full orchestra and all four songs have prominent horn parts. The juxaposition of the achingly beautiful vocal line with the respectfully supportive brass accompaniment has clear references to Strauss's own life: His wife was a famous soprano and his father a professional horn player.

Text

1. "Frühling"
In dämmrigen Grüften
träumte ich lang
von deinen Bäumen und blauen Lüften,
Von deinem Duft und Vogelsang.

Nun liegst du erschlossen
In Gleiß und Zier
Von Licht übergossen
Wie ein Wunder vor mir.

Du kennst mich wieder,
du lockst mich zart,
es zittert durch all meine Glieder
deine selige Gegenwart!

(English)
In dusky valleys
I dreamt long
of your trees and blue skies,
of your scent and birdsong.

Now you appear
in all your finery,
shining brilliantly
like a miracle before me.

You recognize me once more,
you tenderly embrace me;
all my limbs tremble at
your glorious presence!

Composed: July 20, 1948

2. "September"
Der Garten trauert,
kühl sinkt in die Blumen der Regen.
Der Sommer schauert
still seinem Ende entgegen.

Golden tropft Blatt um Blatt
nieder vom hohen Akazienbaum.
Sommer lächelt erstaunt und matt
In den sterbenden Gartentraum.

Lange noch bei den Rosen
bleibt er stehn, sehnt sich nach Ruh.
Langsam tut er
die müdgeword'nen Augen zu.

(English)
The garden is in mourning;
the cool rain seeps into the flowers.
Summertime shudders,
quietly awaiting his end.

Golden leaf after leaf falls
down from the tall acacia tree.
Summer smiles, astonished and feeble,
in his dying dream of a garden.

For a while beside the roses
he remains, yearning for repose.
Slowly he closes
his weary eyes.
Composed: September 20, 1948

3. "Beim Schlafengehen"
Nun der Tag mich müd' gemacht,
soll mein sehnliches Verlangen
freundlich die gestirnte Nacht
wie ein müdes Kind empfangen.

Hände, laßt von allem Tun,
Stirn, vergiß du alles Denken,
alle meine Sinne nun
wollen sich in Schlummer senken.

Und die Seele unbewacht,
will in freien Flügen schweben,
um im Zauberkreis der Nacht
tief und tausendfach zu leben.

(English)
Now I am wearied of the day;
all my ardent desires shall
gladly succumb to the starry night
like a sleepy child.

Hands, stop all your work;
brow, forget all your thoughts;
all my being now
yearns to sink into sleep.

And my unguided spirit
wishes to fly up freely
into night's magic sphere
to live deeply and thousandfold.

Composed: August 4, 1948

4. "Im Abendrot"
Wir sind durch Not und Freude
gegangen Hand in Hand;
vom Wandern ruhen wir
nun überm stillen Land.

Rings sich die Täler neigen,
es dunkelt schon die Luft,
zwei Lerchen nur noch steigen
nachträumend in den Duft.

Tritt her und laß sie schwirren,
bald ist es Schlafenszeit,
daß wir uns nicht verirren
In dieser Einsamkeit.

O weiter, stiller Friede!
So tief im Abendrot.
Wie sind wir wandermüde--
Ist dies etwa der Tod?

(English)
We have gone through sorrow and joy
hand in hand;
now let us rest from our wanderings
above the silent land.

Around us, the valleys bend downwards;
the sky is turning darker;
a solitary pair of larks still soar
with reverie into the fragrant air.

Come close to me and let them fly about;
soon it will be time to sleep;
let us not lose our way
in this solitude.

O vast, tranquil peace!
so deep at sunset.
How weary we are of wandering -
Is this perhaps death?

Composed: May 6, 1948

Notes
Towards the end of Im Abendrot, Strauss musically quotes his own tone poem Death and Transfiguration, written 60 years earlier. As in that piece, the quoted theme symbolizes the fulfillment of the soul in death.

novice · Joined: Feb 12, 2006 Posts: 541

Thanks xantha, it's really good to see the background on these.
_________________
Music Speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it Rest, Heals the Heart and makes it whole - Flows from the heavens to the Soul!

Connie · Joined: Mar 02, 2006 Posts: 368

Beautiful poems, thanks Xantha for the interesting background history. Smile