19 BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY OF NORTHERN IRELAND 1952 1953 SIXTH RECITAL under the auspices of THE QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY OF BELFAST DIETRICH FISCHER-DIESKAU, Baritone HERMANN REUTTER. Pianoforte Fernando Germani halben Ball The Sir William Whitla Hall Queen's University, Belfast SATURDAY, MARCH 14th 1953

A Recital of Settings of Poems by Goethe (1749-1832) LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) Beethoven's songs are not among his greatest works, but are worth more attention than they get; they are often strophic, using the same melody, or but slightly modified, for all verses of the poem. As would be expected, the piano part shows signs of being something more than a merely harmonic support for the voice, but it falls short of the great interpretative achieve- ments of Schubert. Mailied. A poem expressive of the rapturous joy of living and loving. It is spring; nature is bursting forth into life and blossom. The lark is singing. The poet too will sing and burst into praise of his beloved. Sehnsucht. My heart desires to go where my loved one is; I become a raven and spy out for her; I become a singing bird in the woods. and she knows I am singing for her; I shine as a star for her from far above, and I fall at her feet. Neue Liebe, neues Leben. Ill at ease, the poet tries to break from the thraldom of the new love he cannot resist. He laments his present plight and contrasts it with his former freedom and appeals to love to let him go. Wonne der Wehmut. Do not dry and vanish, tears of eternal love. How dead the world appears to the half-dried eye, how desolate. FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797-1828) Almost any verse set Schubert a-song-writing; he used the works of over ninety poets, but he set many more of the poems of Goethe than of anyone else, and the number of his supreme master-pieces among these is impressive. There was always something hit or miss about Schubert as a song-writer,

and the composer's achievement did not always correspond with the quality of the verse, for good or bad; but when great poetry called forth great music, as it did in the six songs that follow, the result was priceless. Prometheus. Prometheus, the creator of mankind, has been chained to a rock in punishment by Zeus. He hurls defiance at the tyrant, proclaims the childishness of believing in him as the father and protector of mankind and denounces his dependence on the worship and sacrifices of mankind. He and the men he has made will not bow in slavery to him. An Schwager Kronos. Time is envisaged as a postilion driving his horse. Lash your horses, no dawdling for me. I would devour life, not nibble at it. Not for me the tedium of thrift and caution. One crowded hour for me, and then the end quickly. Meerestille. A breathless world. There is no ripple in the waste of waters; and the becalmed sailor stares with dread at silence, at death made visible. Rastlose Liebe. From a mood of wild tempestuous defiance of snow and wind the poet becomes introspective; he would sooner fight his way through suffering than endure the joy this love has brought him. He thinks of escape. Should he fly to the woods? No, he must accept love with its pains and joys. It is at once the crown of life and joy without repose. Ernest Walker calls this "that overwhelming masterpiece of the 1915 year, sure far outdistancing the somehow more famous Erlkönig-did ever another boy of 18 flame like this?" Erster Verlust. Lost, lost, and the world will never be the same again. Life will go on, but never again the old life. Never again the same. Erlkonig. The story of the father galloping through the night with his son in his arms, of the enchanting allurements of the Erlking, of the child's fright and the father's terror, with the horse ever galloping on and on, never stopping till the child lies dead. INTERVAL

HUGO WOLF (1860-1903) Wolf's approach to song-writing was the most literary of any of these composers. Not merely did he fit his German words with music that clung to them like a coat of paint which cannot be removed and fitted to any translation, but he was capable of suggesting many things not directly implied in the words he was setting. This may be seen in the three songs of the half- crazy harper in Wilhelm Meister which follow. He had loved and married Sperata, the mother of his child Mignon, without knowing that Sperata was his sister. His remorse at the dis- covery sends him mad. Wolf, especially in the accompaniments of the following three songs, suggests this tragic background, and has been accused of trying to set the novel to music rather than the songs from it. Wer nich der Eisamkeit ergibt. He who gives himself up to solitude is left alone to his anguish, and yet in real loneliness one is not alone. Suffering and anguish accompany him and it is only in the grave that. he will find real peace. An die Thuren will ich schleichen. To the doors I will creep and stand silently and humbly; a gentle hand will offer me bread and I will go on my way. Who- ever looks on me will think how fortunate is his lot: he will shed a tear-I know not why he weeps. Wer nie sein Brot. He who ne'er ate his bread with tears, who ne'er throughout the sorrow-laden nights sat weeping on his bed, he knows ye not, ye heavenly powers. Ye lead us into life, ye let the innocent. one become guilty, then leave him to his suffering; for every sin is atoned for on earth. "Wolf," said Ernest Walker, "comes nearest to Goethe, in that, for better or worse, he adventured everything." This may be seen in the next group of songs, where Wolf comes near to trying to set philosophy to music, though as almost invariably with him, it is the psychology of those interested in the ideas. that he tries to express.

Ob der Koran. Has the Koran existed since eternity? Was it created? I do not know. I believe it to be the book of books from my loyalty to the Moslems. I do not doubt, however, that wine has existed from eternity, and perhaps indeed it was created by angels. The man who drinks can certainly look God more keenly in the face. Phanomen. When Phoebus joins to the wall of rain, a rainbow's edge stands colourfully shadowed. I see a similar circle drawn in the midst. The rainbow is admittedly white, but a heavenly one for all that. So, old gay man, do not worry: even if your hair is white, yet you are capable of love. Genialisch Treiben. The philosopher rolls about incessantly in his tub like Diogenes; it is now seriousness, now fun, now this, now that, now nothing, now something. It is the pianoforte part which expresses the gay irrespon- sibility of this kind of life. The singer merely articulates the words that explain what the pianoforte is about; it may legitimately be said that here the singer accompanies the piano. The two Coptic songs come from a drama dealing with the charlatan Cagliostro. Kophtisches Lied I. For all the disputations of philosophers, the really wise have always agreed on one thing. "It is folly to expect fools to become wise. O children of wisdom make fools of the foolish, it is their due." In the second verse this is the message pro- claimed by Merlin. In the third it is the mystery uttered in an Egyptian tomb. On each occasion on which this refrain is sung it is accom- panied by ironic laughter from the pianoforte, and each time it is sung at a lower pitch, in the last giving a very hollow and cavernous impression of the Egyptian tomb. Kophtisches Lied II. Obey my commands, profit by the days of your youth, learn to be wiser. The pointer of the great of rtune still. You must rise or sink, you must rule and be victorious or serve and be vanquished, suffer or triumph, be the anvil or the hammer. This song is one of the few in which we may legitimately wonder if Wolf fully understood the poem; Goethe intended it cynically, but, as the inspiriting postlude of the accompaniment suggests, Wolf took it quite seriously.