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This recording presents three different, utterly contrasting responses to the quest for expression and the solution to the old problem of how to merge text and music into a unity. The common theme linking these compositions, "The Passion and Pains of Love", has been wrested from the texts of these choral works: they are poetic declarations of love, descriptions of nature with erotic and intimate imagery, poems that speak of unfulfilled yearning and breaking hearts. Their poetic quality opens a range of expression every bit as varied as the three musical settings they stimulated.
Richard Strauss: 2 Gesange, Op. 34, TrV 182
2 Gesange, Op. 34, TrV 182: No. 1. Der Abend
Luigi Nono: Sara dolce tacere
Sara dolce tacere
Richard Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder (excerpts) (arr. by C. Gottwald for choir a-cappella)
Wesendonck Lieder: No. 5. Traume (arr. C. Gottwald for 16-part chorus)
Luigi Nono: Cori di Didone
I. La sera si prolunga
II. Ora il vento s'e fatto silenzioso
III. Nella tenebra, muta
IV. A bufera s'e aperto, al buio, un porto
V. Il mio declinio abbelliro, stasera
VI. Finale: Piu non muggisce, non sussurra il mare
Wesendonck Lieder (excerpts) (arr. by C. Gottwald for choir a-cappella)
Wesendonck Lieder: No. 3. Im Treibhaus (arr. C. Gottwald for 16-part chorus)
Luigi Nono: Liebeslied
Liebeslied
Richard Strauss: 2 Gesange, Op. 34, TrV 182
2 Gesange, Op. 34, TrV 182: No. 2. Hymne
Gustav Mahler: Ruckert-Lieder (arr. for choir)
Ruckert-Lieder: No. 3. Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (arr. C. Gottwald for 16-part chorus)
July 2006
*****
“…unearthly purity of upper voices as the god of Strauss's and Schiller's evening picture descends sets the scene very well indeed. More exciting of all are the climaxes of the real novelties here, Clytus Gottwald's arrangements of the two Wesendonck Lieder which Wagner transfigures in Tristan. ...both settings open out dazzlingly. Sopranos hit spot-on top Ds both here and in a very substantial bonus, Gottwald's even more successful treatment of 'Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen' from Mahler's Rückert Lieder.”
Click on any of the works listed above for alternative recordings.
2 Gesange, Op. 34, TrV 182: No. 1. Der Abend