BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY OF NORTHERN IRELAND 1954 1955 FOURTH RECITAL under the auspices of THE QUEEN'S NIVERSIT OF BELFAS SUZANNE DANCO (Soprano) FREDERICK STONE (Pianoforte) The Sir William Whitla Hall Queen's University, Belfast SATURDAY, DECEMBER, 4th 1954

THREE LAUDI Anonymous (14th Century) Gloria in Cielo A song of thanksgiving at the birth of our Saviour. "Glory in heaven and peace on earth; born is our Saviour." Magdalena A hymn to the Magdalene to pray for us to God. She herself a sinner had turned to follow the Saviour. She knelt at His feet, kissed them, bathed them with tears and dried them with her hair. Ever pray for us to God. De la Crudel Morte de Cristo Let all men bitterly lament the cruel death of Christ. Seized by the Jews, bound like a thief, betrayed for silver by a traitor who had better never have been born, He was stripped and whipped to bleeding like a criminal and hastened to the cross. Let all men bitterly lament the cruel death of Christ, abandoned by all to his suffering. ECCO DI DOLCI RAGGI Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) The sun has come forth bringing the flowers and the death of winter. It hushes the wind and sleeps in Clorida's bosom. All things breathe its passion. I till now have been proof against the passion of love; I could resist her eyes, but not the universal passion of all things. My heart now burns with love. CON CHE SUAVITA Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) With what delight, sweet lips, I both hear you and kiss you; but if I enjoy one pleasure, the other is denied me. One charm ousts the other, while my heart yearns for both. How sweet your kisses, how sweet your words; would that I could combine both delights, kissing your words and uttering your kisses. DEH PIU A ME NON V'ASCONDETE G. Maria Bononcini (1642-1678) O do not hide from me, bright beams of my sun; by revealing yourselves, you could rid my soul of its pain. QUAM PULCHRA ES Alessandro Grandi ( -c.1637) How fair you are, my beauteous one. Your eyes are as the doves', your hair as the flocks of she-goats, your teeth as the rows of oars. How fair you are my beauteous one. You have wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse; you have wounded my heart with one of your eyes, with a hair of your head. You are all beauteous, my beloved, there is no stain in thee. VUOI CHE PARTA (from "Lucio Vero") Attilio Ariosti (1666-1740) You bid me go; I will go; but remember, cruel one, that my shame goes with me. An end to these tears, this affection which sets a blind love in my breast. INTERVAL

TROIS MÉLODIES Aurore, Op. 39, No. 1 (Composed 1884. Words by Armand Silvestre). It is extraordinary to observe how the inferior verse of Silvestre (his words do not rise above cheap drawing-room ballad level) inspired Fauré to this delicate sublimation of emotion. The theme is that of the dawn after a night of love; English listeners might find the wrong emotions stirred by such clichés as "the garden of my heart", etc., that occur in it. Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) Prison, Op. 83, No. 1 (Composed 1900. Words by Paul Verlaine). Verlaine's despair over his lost youth, an anguished appeal by the poet to himself to explain what he had done with his youth. The song is dramatic, but restrained; the voice loses itself in the mist of memory. Soir, Op. 83, No. 2 (Composed 1900. Words by Albert Samain). FÊTES GALANTES Claude Debussy (1862-1918) (Composed 1892. Words by Paul Verlaine). En Sourdine Let us, in the twilight steep our love in its deep silence. Let us sink our souls in the vague languor of the pines. Close your eyes and give yourself to nothingness, and let the breezes lull you to sleep. And at night, in the darkness of the oaks, the nightingale will sing, the voice of our despair. Fantoches A Fragonard-like picture of the antics of some harlequins gesticulating to the moonlight while the daughter of one of them slips silently by to meet her lover. Clair de Lune This song has nothing to do with the popular piano piece of the same name by Debussy which forms a movement of the Suite Bergamasque. "Your soul is a choice landscape where maskers roam, playing and dancing, sad under their disguises. Even as they sing of conquering love they hardly seem to believe in their happiness and their song mingles with the sad moon- light, which makes the birds dream in the trees and the fountains among the marbles sob in ecstacy."

HISTOIRES NATURELLES Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) (Composed 1906. Settings of prose poems by Jules Renard). Le Paon The peacock strutting in all his glory waits for his bride who does not come. He struts and calls her, but still she does not come. The other birds, used to his magnificence pay no heed to him; but his vanity is proof against disappointment. She will come tomorrow. He ascends the steps, spreads out his train, and rehearses the ceremony over again. Le Grillon. The cricket, weary of wandering, returns home, tidies up his house and winds up his watch. He still does not feel secure and turns his tiny key in the lock, and, as if by a little chain squeaking on its pulley, drops to the ground. Nothing more is heard. Outside in the silence, the poplars stand like fingers pointing to the moon. Le Cygne The swan glides on the water, every now and then shooting down his neck as if to catch the white clouds he sees reflected on the water. Always the clouds disperse, but form again, and gently he paddles up and tries again. Will he die, deluded, without ever catching a cloud? No, for every time he dives, he brings up a fat worm. He is growing as fat as a goose. Le Martin-Pêcheur The fisherman has not had a bite, but an experience worth far more than catching fish. A king-fisher has come and, mis- taking his rod for the branch of a tree, has perched on it. The fisherman held his breath, and the bird flew off, not frightened, but thinking that he was gliding from one branch to another. La Pintade The guinea-hen, the hunch-back of the farmyard, thinks only of evil. Turkeys and other animals she attacks in jealousy, always screaming and shrieking. Sometimes she leaves the barnyard in peace, but returns more vicious than ever. It is all pretence. She has been away somewhere to lay an egg. I can go and look for it if I want to. She lies in the dust, a hunchback, and wallows. Next Concert - Friday, January 21st SEPTET OF THE WIGMORE ENSEMBLE Mozart Quartet in D Major for Flute, Violin, Viola and Cello, K.285. Brahms Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet in B Minor, Op. 115. Jean Françaix-Quintet for Flute, Harp and String Trio. Lennox Berkeley-String Trio. Ravel-Introduction and Allegro for Flute, Clarinet, Harp and String Quartet.