Gesange des Orients (Songs of the Orient)
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Label: Nimbus
Cat No: NI5971
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Vocal/Choral
Release Date: 6th July 2018
Contents
Works
Hafis-Lieder (8), op.5Lieder (5) aus dem Chinesischen, op.8
Melodien (5), op.33
Songs on Chinese Poetry (4)
Gesange (5) des Orients, op.77
Liederbuch des Hafis, op.30
Lieder aus der Fremde, op.15
Artists
Simon Wallfisch (baritone)Edward Rushton (piano)
Works
Hafis-Lieder (8), op.5Lieder (5) aus dem Chinesischen, op.8
Melodien (5), op.33
Songs on Chinese Poetry (4)
Gesange (5) des Orients, op.77
Liederbuch des Hafis, op.30
Lieder aus der Fremde, op.15
Artists
Simon Wallfisch (baritone)Edward Rushton (piano)
About
‘Suppressed music (or “Entartete Musik” or “Verfemte Musik”), music and musicians smeared by the Nazis’ dark, ideologically-motivated hatred, has developed into an artificial genre of its own, throwing together composers of completely different musical backgrounds and, it must be said, varying degrees of quality, into the same bucket. This must change. We risk missing the true qualities, nuances and pedigree of individual composers’ voices, as well as the cultural preoccupations that united them (as in the case of this CD, the common fascination in the early twentieth century with translations of Chinese and Persian poetry). The deliberate inclusion of Richard Strauss (whose political allegiances are questionable), is because I wish the listener to hear beyond the names, beyond the painful historical facts and savour the incredible sound world created by these musical cousins.
‘It is my wish that, by presenting all of these neglected composers as equals, we can begin to restore them to their rightful place, where they belonged all along, in our collective musical Consciousness.’
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Ullmann - Liederbuch des Hafis, Op. 30
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2von Einem - Acht Hafis-Lieder, Op. 5: I. Wahrlich, du bist ein kecker Dieb
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3von Einem - Acht Hafis-Lieder, Op. 5: V. Nichtswürdig bist du
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4Ullmann - Zwei chinesische Lieder
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5Haas - 4 Songs on Old Chinese Poems: I. I Heard the Cry of the Wild Geese
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6Haas - 4 Songs on Old Chinese Poems: III. Far is my Home, O Moon
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7von Einem - Fünf Lieder aus dem Chinesischen, Op. 8: I. Die geheimnisvolle Flote
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8Haas - Chinese Songs op.4 - I. Sadness
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9Wellesz - Lieder aus der Fremde, Op. 15
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10R Strauss - Gesange des Orients op.77 - I. Ihre Augen
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11Gal - Five Songs op.33: I. Drei Prinzessinnen
Europadisc Review
However Simon Wallfisch, whose own family members experienced the horrors of Auschwitz, eschews such labels in favour of a more intriguingly thematic approach which allows him to include three Bethge settings from the op.77 Gesänge des Orients by Richard Strauss, thus locating all these works within the broader cultural context of which they should rightly be a part. ‘I wish,’ he writes, ‘to hear beyond the names, beyond the painful historical facts, and savour the incredible sound world created by these musical cousins [...] to restore them to their rightful place, where they belonged all along, in our collective musical consciousness.’
With the help of superbly sensitive, evocative and magically detailed piano accompaniments from Edward Rushton, Wallfisch, ever alive to the nuances of the German and Czech texts, triumphantly succeeds. He captures both the fascination with the Orient that fired these composers’ imaginations, and also that haunting sense of ‘otherness’, of unbelonging, that must have spoken to many of them all too directly. From exuberant drinking songs to intense, lonely epitaphs for lost love, from mysterious sisters to metaphorical nature pictures, doesn’t put a foot wrong.
The standout items here are the complete cycles by Ullmann, Haas and the immediately post-war von Einem, all of which mix eastern atmosphere, personal pain and early 20th-century popular culture in a variety beguiling mixtures. Von Einem himself remains best known for his opera Dantons Tod, premiered in Salzburg at the time of the two cycles recorded here, and Wallfisch’s performances are important additions to the discography, as are his Ullmann and Haas. He makes an excellent case, too, for rarities by Wellesz and Gál, the former exuding Schoenbergian expressionism and serialism, the latter revelling in late-Romantic harmonies that provide a link with the almost operatic opulence of the Strauss songs which, partly thank to the daring harmonies of ‘Huldigung’ (Adoration), don’t sit quite as uneasily among the other works here as you might suppose.
Alongside Wallfisch’s own intelligently argued personal note, there’s an excellent article on the composers and music by Erik Levi, and full English translations of the song texts. The songs themselves are tracked not individually but in groups, which encourages (like the programming itself) a more integrated way of listening to these absorbing works. Outstanding in every respect, and one of the most interesting lieder discs of the year so far.
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