Ravinia 2019, Issue 5, Week 9

close friend and patron Oskar Grohe: “melan- choly introduction … takes on unexpectedly a vigorous character … and closes festively with triumphal fanfares.” Wolf deemed Alles endet, was entstehet (Every- thing ends that came to be) the most noteworthy song of the cycle—“the best that I have so far knocked off ”—for its chilling confrontation of death from beyond the grave (“truth to the point of cruelty”). Fühlt meine Seele das ersehnte Licht (Does my soul feel the longed-for light?) tender- ly sets Michelangelo’s sonnet about his lover’s captivating grace and affection. DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–75) Selections from Suite on Verses by Michelangelo Buonarroti , op. 145 One year before the quincentenary of the birth of Michelangelo Buonarroti in 1975, compos- er Dmitri Shostakovich had stumbled across Russian translations of Michelangelo’s poetry by art historian Abram (or Avram) Markovich Efros (1888–1954), which were included in Vik- tor Nikolayevich Grashchenkov’s Russian-lan- guage Michelangelo: Life and Works (1964). “I can only judge Michelangelo with difficulty,” wrote Shostakovich to Isaak Glikman on Au- gust 23, 1974, “but the most important things have become clear to me. And the most im- portant things in the sonnets seem to me to be the following: wisdom, love, creation, death, immortality. The translations by A. M. Efros are not always successful. But Michelangelo’s great achievement shines through even in so-so translations.” The intrinsic awkwardness is part- ly explainable by the fact that Efros consulted a German, rather than Italian, poetic source for his Russian translations. Shostakovich’s late song cycles understandably confronted mortality, a preoccupation of the aging composer whose physical ailments had begun to multiply. In these vocal works, art of- fered a pathway beyond human concern toward a transcendent reality—a form of Neoplatonism shared with his chosen authors. Different art forms underpinned the series of late song cycles: Seven Romances on Poems by Alexander Blok ¸ op. 127 (1967; “music”), Six Poems by Marina Tsvetayeva , op. 143 (1973; “poetry”), and Suite on Verses by Michelangelo Buonarroti , op. 145 (1974; “visual arts”). The themes Shostakovich initially identified in Michelangelo guided the selection and organi- zation of poems for his Suite on Verses by Mi- chelangelo Buonarroti . Scholars have proposed several interpretations of this cycle. Though different in detail, they all trace an artist’s life- time—unquestionably an autobiographical rep- resentation of Shostakovich himself—through realized and unrequited love, creativity and the rejected artist, and death. The eight sonnets, madrigal, epigram, and epitaph of the collection originated at various times in Michelangelo’s life and career, but they are carefully ordered and given descriptive titles suited to Shostakovich’s narrative. Most writers envision the songs in small thematically related sets: nos. 2–4 ( Morn- ing , Love , and Separation ), nos. 5–7 ( Wrath , Dante , and To the Exile ), and nos. 8–10 ( Cre- ativity , Night , and Death ). Providing a structural framework to the entire set, no. 1 ( Truth ) func- tions as a prologue and no. 11 ( Immortality ) as an epilogue. In terms of musical style, Shostakovich drew on a variety of musical idioms appropriate to each expressive context (similar to his younger coun- tryman Alfred Schnittke’s polystylism). Vocal lines often employ a declamatory style in the manner of Baroque recitative or the Znamen- ny chants of the Russian Orthodox Church. Another historical compositional technique—a passacaglia based on an 11-note theme—appears in no. 10. The keyboard provides much of each song’s individual character, from rather fragile single lines to two-voice counterpoint and aton- al interludes, which emerge in six songs. Shosta- kovich integrated the cycle as a whole through motives built of basic intervals. One motive that transcended this song cycle was the compos- er’s musical motto—D, E-flat, C, and B-natural ( D mitri SCH ostakovich, in German music no- tation)—which appears in no. 9. Shostakovich completed the Suite on Verses by Michelangelo Buonarroti , op. 145, on July 30, 1974, and dedicated the score to his wife, Iri- na. Russian bass Yevgeny Nesterenko and pia- nist Yevgeny Shenderovich gave the solo-song premiere on December 23, 1974, in the Glinka Concert Hall in Leningrad. Nesterenko again was soloist in the orchestral premiere, given on October 12, 1975 (two months after Shostakov- ich’s death) by the USSR Radio and Television Orchestra, under the direction of the compos- er’s son Maxim, in the Moscow Conservatory’s Bolshoy Hall. Though originally written for bass voice and piano, it was the orchestral ver- sion that Shostakovich evidently considered definitive. Maxim revealed to Nesterenko that his father deemed the song cycle his “Sympho- ny No. 16,” a companion to the 11-movement Symphony No. 14, for soprano and bass soloists, string orchestra, and percussion. JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833–97) Vier ernste Gesänge , op. 121 “Our mother fell gently asleep today,” read Ma- rie Schumann’s telegraph to Johannes Brahms on May 20, 1886. Brahms deeply grieved the death of Clara Schumann, a trusted friend and artistic ally who supported his career almost from start to finish. Her death came after a pro- longed illness. Clara experienced a debilitating stroke in Frankfurt on March 26 before suffering a more serious incident on May 10. Even from Vienna, Brahms understood the precarious state of her health. Her waning life and thoughts of his own mortality spurred the aging composer to his penultimate creative act in the Vier ernste Gesänge ( Four Serious Songs ), op. 121. Brahms finished these songs for low voice and piano on May 7, his own birthday. Texts were derived from various scriptural verses dealing with death: Ecclesiastes 3:19–22, Ecclesiastes 4:1–3, Ecclesiasticus 41:1–2, and 1 Corinthians 13:1–3,12–13. Long before Clara’s death, Brahms had selected these readings from the Old Testa- ment book of Ecclesiastes on human desire and accomplishment by an ancient sage (perhaps Solomon), the Apocryphal book of Ecclesias- ticus (also called the Wisdom of Sirach, after its pre-Christian author, “Jesus, son of Eleazar, son of Sirach”), and the New Testament epistle of Paul to the church at Corinth, the section known as the “love chapter.” The dire turn of events, however, prompted the quick completion of these songs. Brahms wrote to Marie Schumann on July 7: “Some such words as these have long been in my mind, and I did not think that worse news about your mother was to be expected—but deep in the heart of man something often whispers and stirs, quite unconsciously perhaps, which in time may ring Dmitri Shostakovich (1974) Johannes Brahms JULY 29 – AUGUST 4, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 93