Wolf - Italienisches Liederbuch
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Label: BIS
Cat No: BIS2553
Format: Hybrid SACD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Vocal/Choral
Release Date: 5th August 2022
Contents
Artists
Carolyn Sampson (soprano)Allan Clayton (tenor)
Joseph Middleton (piano)
Works
Italienisches Liederbuch (Italian Songbook)Artists
Carolyn Sampson (soprano)Allan Clayton (tenor)
Joseph Middleton (piano)
About
Composed in feverish bouts interrupted by long periods of inaction, Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch was brought to completion in 1896. The 46 songs are settings of poems in German by Paul Heyse, after Italian folk songs – miniatures with a duration of less than 2 minutes in most cases. Heyse’s collection numbered more than 350 poems, but Wolf ignored the ballads and laments, and concentrated almost exclusively on the rispetti. These are short love poems which chart, against a Tuscan landscape, the everyday jealousies, flirtations, joys and despairs of men and women in love. Heyse’s translations often intensify the simple Italian of the original poems, and in their turn, Wolf’s settings represent a further heightening of emotion. Miniatures they may be, but many of the songs strike unforgettably at the heart.
When Wolf’s songbook is performed in its entirety, it is usually done by a male and a female singer, although this is not specified in the score. It is not uncommon for them to be transposed, but the songs are written for high voices, and are here performed by a soprano and a tenor – Carolyn Sampson and Alan Clayton – with Joseph Middleton at the piano. The performers have chosen to present the songs in the order they appear in the printed collection, dividing them between themselves.
When Wolf’s songbook is performed in its entirety, it is usually done by a male and a female singer, although this is not specified in the score. It is not uncommon for them to be transposed, but the songs are written for high voices, and are here performed by a soprano and a tenor – Carolyn Sampson and Alan Clayton – with Joseph Middleton at the piano. The performers have chosen to present the songs in the order they appear in the printed collection, dividing them between themselves.
Sound/Video
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1Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 1. Auch kleine Dinge können uns entzücken
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2Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 2. Mir ward gesagt, du reisest in die Ferne
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3Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 3. Ihr seid die Allerschönste wit und breit
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4Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 4. Gesegnet sei, durch den die Welt entstund
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5Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 5. Selig ihr Blinden, die ihr nicht zu schauen
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6Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 6. Wer rief dich denn? Wer hat dich herbestellt
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7Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 7. Der Mond hat eine schwere Klag’ erhoben
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8Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 8. Nun laß uns Frieden schließen, liebstes Leben
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9Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 9. Daß doch gemalt al deine Reize wären
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10Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 10. Du denkst mit einem Fädchen mich zu fangen
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11Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 11. Wie lange schon war immer mein Verlangen
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12Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 12. Nein, junger Herr, so treibt man’s nicht, fürwahr
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13Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 13. Hoffärtig seid ihr, schönes Kind, und gur
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14Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 14. Geselle, woll’n wir uns in Kutten hüllen
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15Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 15. Mein Liebster ist so klein, daß ohne Bücken
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16Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 16. Ihr jungen Leute, die ihr zieht ins Feld
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17Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 17. Und willst du deinen Liebsten sterben sehen
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18Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 18. Heb’ auf dein blondes Haupt und schlafe nicht
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19Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 19. Wir haben beide lange Zeit geschwiegen
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20Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 20. Mein Liebster singt am Haus im Mondenscheine
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21Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 21. Man sagt mir, deine Mutter woll’ es nicht
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22Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – I. Band: 22. Ein Ständchen Euch zu bringen kam ich her
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23Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 23. Was für ein Lied soll dir gesungen werden
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24Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 24. Ich esse nun mein Brot nicht trocken mehr
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25Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 25. Mein Liebster hat zu Tische mich geladen
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26Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 26. Ich ließ mir sagen und mir ward erzählt
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27Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 27. Schon streckt’ ich aus im Bett die müden Glieder
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28Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 28. Du sagst mir, daß ich kein Fürstin sei
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29Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 29. Wohl kenn’ ich Euren Stand, der nicht gering
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30Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 30. Laß sie nur gehn, die so die Stolze spielt
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31Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 31. Wie soll ich fröhlich sein und lachen gar
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32Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 32. Was soll der Zorn, mein Schatz, der dich erhitzt
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33Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 33. Sterb’ ich, so hüllt in Blumen meine Glieder
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34Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 34. Und steht Ihr früh am Morgen auf vom Bette
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35Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 35. Benedeit die sel’ge Mutter
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36Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 36. Wenn du, mein Liebster, steigst zum Himmel auf
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37Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 37. Wie viele Zeit verlor ich, dich zu lieben
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38Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 38. Wenn di mich mit den Augen streifst und lachst
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39Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 39. Gesegnet sei das Grün und wer es trägt
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40Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 40. O wär’ dein Haus durchsichtig wie ein Glas
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41Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 41. Heut Nacht erhob ich mich um Mitternacht
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42Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 42. Nicht länger kann ich singen, denn der Wind
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43Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 43. Schweig’ einmal still, du garst’ger Schwätzer dort
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44Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 44. O wüßtest du, wie viel ich deinetwegen
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45Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 45. Verschling’ der Abgrund meines Liebsten Hütte
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46Italienisches Liederbuch, IHW15 (1890–96) – II. Band: 46. Ich hab’ in Penna einen Liebsten wohnen
Europadisc Review
The final song cycle of Hugo Wolf’s tortured compositional life had a particularly protracted genesis. Eventually published in two volumes, these miniatures set forty-six of Paul Heyse’s 1860 Italienisches Liederbuch, translations of Italian popular songs on the theme of love, its passions, disappointments, games and quarrels. Wolf selected from Heyse only the short songs – rispetti – which seem to capture love’s fleeting, changeable moods, for his own Italienisches Liederbuch. Few occupy more than two pages of score, and some are just a page long. Whatever the drawbacks and benefits of working on such concentrated canvases, it was Wolf’s own health problems that impacted on the collection’s progress.
Seven songs from the first volume were completed in the autumn of 1890, but a period of intense depression intervened before a further fifteen were composed in a creative burst in late 1891, and the first book was published in 1892. A more serious disruption was caused by the onset of secondary syphilis, with Wolf composing no original music at all from 1892 to 1894. A recovery, however, allowed him to throw himself into work on his only opera, Der Corregidor, in 1895. And in spring 1896 he returned to the ‘Italian Songbook’, composing all twenty-four songs of the second book in less than five weeks: an extraordinary creative feat.
Wolf himself came to detest the public’s perception of him as a composer of miniaturist songs, yet the Italienisches Liederbuch is a jewel of late Romanticism, as popular in the recital hall as on disc, whether performed in isolated parts or as a whole. The two singers – an impassioned male lover and his often coquettish sweetheart – inhabit roles that may now seem outdated, but the emotions they play out are timeless. They never actually interact, with their songs alternating rather than overlapping, yet the emotional dynamics at play ensure a continued vibrancy.
Like many other artists, soprano Carolyn Sampson and tenor Allan Clayton, together with pianist Joseph Middleton, have now recorded the complete cycle in their published order. And although their recording sessions were separate – Sampson’s in September 2020, Clayton’s in July 2021, in a period when so many aspects of life were disrupted – Middleton’s attentive, vividly-realised accompaniments ensure an expressive continuity in a work whose mosaic qualities are part of its enduring appeal. Clayton is the very embodiment of the passionate, adoring lover, and his tenor voice matches (more closely than a baritone would) the ideals of the Italian beau, even when the texts themselves are in German.
Just as Heyse’s translations heightened the expressive intensity of the original popular texts, so Wolf’s music, so concentrated in its gestures and daring in its harmonic language, raise the emotional bar still higher. Both Clayton and Sampson – the latter capable of a vast range of utterance, from the humorously teasing to the tender and even scornful, from pure-toned to full-throated – bring out the enormous range of feeling captured in these miniature masterpieces. And Middleton is at all times an expert at enhancing the various moods.
The songs of the first book (numbers 1–22) are the more finely etched, contrasted and characterful. It is in the more reflective songs that Clayton particularly excels: the hauntingly austere no.5 ‘Selig ihr Blinden’, or the wonderfully inward no.7 ‘Der Mond hat eine schwere Klag’ erhoben’ (the first of a group of three that rises to unexpected heights of intensity). He’s a dab hand, too, at the kind of vocal characterisation called for in no.14 ‘Geselle, woll’n wir uns in Kutten hüllen’. Sampson, meanwhile, knows just when to pare back her tone, as at the close of the marvellously humorous, jagged no.11 ‘Wie lange schon war immer mein Verlangen’. And she turns that lightness to wonderful effect in the lighter songs, while unleashing a fuller tone in the more serious numbers.
In the second volume, Wolf’s accompaniments are less pictorial, more in the nature of ‘pure music’, but the harmonic richness is no less intense, and Middleton’s accompaniments are as sensitive as ever. There’s a searing intensity to the lines in no.26 ‘Ich ließ mir sagen und mir ward erzählt’ (Sampson), while the mercurial changes of mood in no.27 ‘Schon streckt’ ich aus im Bett die müden Glieder’ (Clayton) are brilliantly realised. In the exquisite nos. 34 and 35 (‘Und steht Ihr früh am Morgen auf vom Bette’ and ‘Benedeit die sel’ge Mutter’) Clayton is at his rapt best; but it is Sampson who has the last word in ‘Ich hab’ in Penna einen Liebsten wohnen’, a delightfully throwaway response to Leporello’s ‘Catalogue’ aria in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The sheer range of emotions in the cycle as a whole, caught so well by all three performers, perhaps gives a hint of Wolf’s own inner turmoil. Yet the prevailing good humour and the mastery of miniature forms make one regret all the more his subsequent mental and physical disintegration.
Don’t be fooled by the rather psychedelic (lurid?) cover: these are life-enhancing performances of Wolf’s final masterpiece, vividly recorded at Potton Hall, and with full texts and translations plus a thoughtful and informative commentary from Richard Stokes. Those wedded to the idea of a baritone lover in these songs should really give Sampson and Clayton a spin: it’s likely to persuade you otherwise! And, against some very stiff competition in recent years, this version stands out for its consistently high standards and ever-engaging artistry.
Seven songs from the first volume were completed in the autumn of 1890, but a period of intense depression intervened before a further fifteen were composed in a creative burst in late 1891, and the first book was published in 1892. A more serious disruption was caused by the onset of secondary syphilis, with Wolf composing no original music at all from 1892 to 1894. A recovery, however, allowed him to throw himself into work on his only opera, Der Corregidor, in 1895. And in spring 1896 he returned to the ‘Italian Songbook’, composing all twenty-four songs of the second book in less than five weeks: an extraordinary creative feat.
Wolf himself came to detest the public’s perception of him as a composer of miniaturist songs, yet the Italienisches Liederbuch is a jewel of late Romanticism, as popular in the recital hall as on disc, whether performed in isolated parts or as a whole. The two singers – an impassioned male lover and his often coquettish sweetheart – inhabit roles that may now seem outdated, but the emotions they play out are timeless. They never actually interact, with their songs alternating rather than overlapping, yet the emotional dynamics at play ensure a continued vibrancy.
Like many other artists, soprano Carolyn Sampson and tenor Allan Clayton, together with pianist Joseph Middleton, have now recorded the complete cycle in their published order. And although their recording sessions were separate – Sampson’s in September 2020, Clayton’s in July 2021, in a period when so many aspects of life were disrupted – Middleton’s attentive, vividly-realised accompaniments ensure an expressive continuity in a work whose mosaic qualities are part of its enduring appeal. Clayton is the very embodiment of the passionate, adoring lover, and his tenor voice matches (more closely than a baritone would) the ideals of the Italian beau, even when the texts themselves are in German.
Just as Heyse’s translations heightened the expressive intensity of the original popular texts, so Wolf’s music, so concentrated in its gestures and daring in its harmonic language, raise the emotional bar still higher. Both Clayton and Sampson – the latter capable of a vast range of utterance, from the humorously teasing to the tender and even scornful, from pure-toned to full-throated – bring out the enormous range of feeling captured in these miniature masterpieces. And Middleton is at all times an expert at enhancing the various moods.
The songs of the first book (numbers 1–22) are the more finely etched, contrasted and characterful. It is in the more reflective songs that Clayton particularly excels: the hauntingly austere no.5 ‘Selig ihr Blinden’, or the wonderfully inward no.7 ‘Der Mond hat eine schwere Klag’ erhoben’ (the first of a group of three that rises to unexpected heights of intensity). He’s a dab hand, too, at the kind of vocal characterisation called for in no.14 ‘Geselle, woll’n wir uns in Kutten hüllen’. Sampson, meanwhile, knows just when to pare back her tone, as at the close of the marvellously humorous, jagged no.11 ‘Wie lange schon war immer mein Verlangen’. And she turns that lightness to wonderful effect in the lighter songs, while unleashing a fuller tone in the more serious numbers.
In the second volume, Wolf’s accompaniments are less pictorial, more in the nature of ‘pure music’, but the harmonic richness is no less intense, and Middleton’s accompaniments are as sensitive as ever. There’s a searing intensity to the lines in no.26 ‘Ich ließ mir sagen und mir ward erzählt’ (Sampson), while the mercurial changes of mood in no.27 ‘Schon streckt’ ich aus im Bett die müden Glieder’ (Clayton) are brilliantly realised. In the exquisite nos. 34 and 35 (‘Und steht Ihr früh am Morgen auf vom Bette’ and ‘Benedeit die sel’ge Mutter’) Clayton is at his rapt best; but it is Sampson who has the last word in ‘Ich hab’ in Penna einen Liebsten wohnen’, a delightfully throwaway response to Leporello’s ‘Catalogue’ aria in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The sheer range of emotions in the cycle as a whole, caught so well by all three performers, perhaps gives a hint of Wolf’s own inner turmoil. Yet the prevailing good humour and the mastery of miniature forms make one regret all the more his subsequent mental and physical disintegration.
Don’t be fooled by the rather psychedelic (lurid?) cover: these are life-enhancing performances of Wolf’s final masterpiece, vividly recorded at Potton Hall, and with full texts and translations plus a thoughtful and informative commentary from Richard Stokes. Those wedded to the idea of a baritone lover in these songs should really give Sampson and Clayton a spin: it’s likely to persuade you otherwise! And, against some very stiff competition in recent years, this version stands out for its consistently high standards and ever-engaging artistry.
Reviews
Hugo Wolf’s Italian Songbook has attracted many great pairings of singers in the past. This new recording, however, makes a good claim to join the finest in the catalogue, with the familiar partnership of Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton bolstered by fellow Brit Allan Clayton, a singer heard all too rarely in lieder, on record at least. ... Choosing to present the songs in published order, they offer a performance to cherish: fresh, intelligent and beautifully sung and played. ... All in all, this adds up to a beautiful new recording of a wonderful work. Highly recommended. Hugo ShirleyGramophone October 2022
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