BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY OF NORTHERN IRELAND 8084-7057 1951 1952 FOURTH RECITAL under the auspices of THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST KATHLEEN FERRIER GERALD MOORE The Sir William Whitla Hall Queen's University, Belfast FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8th 1952

PROGRAMME FRANZ SCHUBERT, 1797-1828 Songs Die Junge Nonne (The Young Nun). Op. 43, No. 1. (Composed 1825. Words by Craigher). "What a fearful night! The thunder makes the whole house rock. Outside it is as dark as the grave. Once my life was just such a storm as this. No light but mad flashes of lightning-the lightning of the passions. I have come out of the storm into peace out of that night into the eternal morning. I am the bride of the Heavenly Bridegroom. Dear bell, you ring sweet and clear above the raging noises of the world. You call my soul. I come. "Hallelujah." Lachen und Weinen (Laughter and Tears). Op 59, No. 4. (Composed 1823. Words by Rückert). "To be in love! It means laughing one moment, crying the next. Why, this morning I was jumping for joy and to-night I am sobbing my heart out. And all for no reason! Heart, are you crazy?" him. Suleika's Zweiter Gesang (Suleika's Second Song). Op. 31. (Composed 1821. Words by Goethe). "West wind, I envy you; you can bring my beloved news of how I long for Nature is moved to tears by your sighing, yet you cool my weeping eyes. I should perish but for the hope of seeing my love. Hasten to him, but conceal my longing. Tell him his love is my life. His presence will bring me bliss." Ganymed. Op. 19, No. 3. (Composed 1817. Words by Goethe). A sublimation of the Zeus-Ganymede legend. "In the spring morning the eternal warmth pervades my heart with the ecstasy of love. Could I but hold thee in my arms. I lie yearning on thy bosom, earth. Thou, beauteous morning breeze, with the calling of nightingales, cool the burning thirst of my breast. I come. Ah, whither? Upwards. The clouds stoop down in yearning. To me. To me. Upwards to thy bosom, all-loving father." Der Musensohm (The Poet). Op. 92, No. 1. (Composed 1822. Words by Goethe). "Up hill and down dale I go singing and piping. I find a rhyme for every- thing and everything goes into my rhymes. I sing in the spring, and when spring is long past I sing its memories to cheer up winter. I sing: and hobbledehoys and the awkwardest wenches give ear and step to my tunes, and start dallying and dancing. But now I ask you, dear saints of song, am I to go on like this for ever? Will your old minstrel never have earned a rest from singing?"

Poème de l'Amour et de la Mer. Op. 19. ERNEST CHAUSSON, 1855-1899 Pianoforte version, 1892. (Orchestral version, 1882. Words by Maurice Buchor). Part I La Fleur des Eaux. "The air is full of the scent of lilacs, perfuming the hair of women. The sea is ablaze in the sun and the waves glitter on the sand. O sky who hast the colour of her eyes, breeze laden with lilac-scent, streams who will moisten her robe, paths who will tremble under her footsteps, reveal to me my love." "My heart is awake this morning. A lovely child on the shore gazed on me with clear eyes and smiled tenderly and wildly. You, transfigured by youth and love, seemed to be the soul of things. My heart fled to you, you kept it, and from heaven the roses rained on us." "How bitterly will sound the hour of farewell. The mock- ing sea breaks on the shore, heedless. Gaily the birds fly overhead, brightly the sun shines on the sea, but I bleed in silence. I bleed to see my life depart on the waves. My soul is bereft and the sound of the waves drowns my sobbing." Pianoforte Interlude Part II La Mort de l'Amour. "Soon the blue and joyous island will show among the rocks, floating like a water-lily on the quiet sea. Over the waters glides the bark to me. Soon I shall be joyful and sad with all my remembrances." "My thoughts fluttered like leaves driven by the winds. Softly the dew-dripping roses (i.e. stars) in the dark sky listened. Terribly the dry, brittle leaves danced and lamented under the stars and told of the horror of love that is dead. The mighty moonlit trees were ghosts; my blood chilled at the strange smile of my beloved. Our foreheads were pale as death, and leaning towards her I saw the word of doom in her eyes-Forgotten." "The season of lilacs and roses will come no more this spring; it has gone with the flowers of spring. The wind has changed, the sky lowers; we shall go no more to gather the lilacs and the roses. Oh joyous spring, who last year came to cheer us, our flower of love is dead, your kiss cannot revive it. What ails thee? No flowers, no sun, no cooling shade. The season of lilacs and of roses like our love is dead for ever." INTERVAL

Vier Ernste Gesange (Four Serious Songs). Op. 121. 2281-2881 JOHANNES BRAHMS, 1833-1897 (Composed 1896; the last work published in Brahms' life- time. Biblical texts). For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no pre-eminence over a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth? Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him? Ecclesiastes 3, 19-22 So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter. Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive. Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun. Ecclesiastes 4, 1-3 Oh Death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions, unto the man that hath nothing to vex him, and that hath prosperity in all things: yea, unto him that is yet able to receive meat: O death, acceptable is thy sentence unto the needy, and unto him whose strength faileth, that is now in the last age, and is vexed with all things, and to him that despaireth, and hath lost patience! Ecclesiasticus 41, 1-7 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge: and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. I Corinthians 13, 1-3, and 12, 13. ....