Ravinia 2021 - Issue 2

JOSEPH HAYDN (1732–1809) Arianna a Naxos , H. XXVIb:2 Haydn’s friendship with Maria Anna von Genzinger began rather simply in 1789 with her unsolicited piano reduction of an instru- mental Andante , which Frau Genzinger sent to the composer for corrections. Their subse- quent correspondence reveals a deepening discussion of artistic issues. Haydn discov- ered in this noble wife of a Viennese doctor a sympathetic musical spirit. His letters express a fondness bordering on infatuation. The 50-something composer wrote his Ital- ian cantata Arianna a Naxos for Genzing- er’s 16-year-old daughter Josepha (“Peperl”). Haydn coached and accompanied Peperl for the first private performance, given in January 1790. This cantata contains a continuous series of recitative and aria sections. The libretto is anonymous, although similarities with Hein- rich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg’s Ariadne auf Naxos text have been noticed. The story treats Ariadne, the daughter of the King of Crete, who guided Theseus through the Cretan laby- rinth with a thread. Theseus married Ariadne, but then abandoned her on the Isle of Naxos. In June 1791, Haydn accompanied the castrato singer Gasparo Pacchierotti in a semi-public performance of Arianna a Naxos that elicited mixed reviews. Though Haydn was no begin- ner in setting Italian texts—he had composed numerous operas and cantatas for the Ester- házy court—London audiences knew him almost exclusively as a German symphonist. The Morning Chronicle reported positively: “The modulation is so deep and scientific, so varied and agitating, that the audience was thrown into ecstasies. Every fiber was touched by the captivating energies of the passion, and Pacchierotti never was more successful.” However, some local Italian mu- sicians passed less flattering judgment, refer- ring to this music as “German piggishness.” GUSTAV MAHLER (1860–1911) Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen Mahler mounted his first conducting podium in 1880, a surprising move to his parents, who Joseph Haydn by Thomas Hardy (1791) envisioned a different future for Gustav, one as concert pianist and composer. Comic op- era direction and opera chorus preparation at the resort town of Bad Hall provided train- ing experience for the ambitious Austrian. For the next three years, Mahler conducted at several small Germanic houses until he received a two-month contract at the Royal Municipal Theater in Olmütz (Moravia) in 1883. From there, he accepted his first regular appointment as second conductor at the Roy- al Prussian Court Theater in Cassel. Within weeks of his arrival in Cassel, Mahler became enamored of the 22-year-old colora- tura soprano Johanna Richter. “Of my own free will I have let myself be shackled, chain upon chain, and so have returned to that same disgraceful old condition of bondage. I mean to fight my way bravely through it.” Their romance flickered on and off for two years until Mahler left Cassel for the Deutsch- es Landestheater in Prague. Infatuation for another young singer quickly erased memo- ries of his Cassel love. Nonetheless, the romance with Johanna had one lasting result, as Mahler described to his friend Friedrich Löhr: “I have written a cy- cle of songs, six of them so far, all dedicated to her. She does not know them. What can they tell her but what she knows? I shall send with this the concluding song, although the inadequate words cannot render even a small part.—The idea of the songs as a whole is that a wayfaring man, who has been stricken by fate, now sets forth into the world, traveling wherever the road may lead him.” These Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen ( Songs of a Wayfarer )—eventually reduced to four in number—were composed between 1883 and 1884 for piano and voice, but probably conceived as orchestral lieder. Mahler crafted his own texts, perhaps unconsciously paral- leling the important folk collection Des Kna- ben Wunderhorn ( The Youth’s Magic Horn ) compiled by Achim von Arnim and Clem- ens Brentano, which he would not officially “discover” until 1888 (the dating is a source of considerable scholarly disagreement). Mahler’s response to folk poetry provided a common thread in his first four symphonies Photograph of Gustav Mahler by Moritz Nähr and three early song collections. The Lie- der eines fahrenden Gesellen and Symphony No. 1 are closely related works, for three song themes later reappear in instrumental guise. Mahler orchestrated his Lieder eines fahren- den Gesellen in 1892–93. ERICH KORNGOLD (1897–1957) Lieder des Abschieds , op. 14 Erich Korngold’s emotions were all in a whirl while composing the Lieder des Abschieds , as his friendship with Luise “Luzi” von Sonnen- thal, an accomplished pianist, writer, singer, painter, and actress, steadily blossomed into romance. Although in his 20s, the former child prodigy pianist and composer Erich remained under the protective wing of his father, Julius Korngold, the longtime music critic for the Neue Freie Presse in Vienna. In his 1944 memoir, Postludes in Major and Mi- nor , the elder Korngold admitted, “I did not allow my son to leave the house by himself until he was 19.” Erich’s love affair with Luzi incited vehement opposition from Julius and his wife Josephine, who considered her an unsuitable match. Julius later blamed Luzi for Erich’s unexpected career shift from compos- ing operas and concert music to writing op- erettas and soundtracks for Hollywood films. Adele von Sonnenthal was no more enthu- siastic about her youngest daughter’s rela- tionship with Erich, which endured for years with no marriage in sight. Exasperated, she insisted that the couple either wed or stop seeing each another for an extended period of time. Since Erich earned no regular income at the time, and he lost most of his savings as Austria suffered through a period of hyper- inflation, separation became the only option. Before their involuntary separation, Erich presented Luzi with a manuscript copy of the Lieder des Abschieds , which contained a secret musical message. “At the end of one of the songs, there was a phrase which only he and I understood,” Luzi later wrote in her 1967 biography of Korngold. “Erich simulated my voice when I used to say ‘Wenn ich’s erlaub’ (If I consent). From that moment on, he used to work this little motive into his concerts some- how, when he was improvising, as a signal or greeting to me: a little message that found its way to me when no one suspected anything.” Erich subsequently presented these poignant songs as a gift to his father, in honor of Julius’s 60th birthday on December 24, 1920. Originally composed for medium voice and piano, the Lieder des Abschieds received its world premiere in Vienna on November 5, 1921, in a performance featuring contralto Maria Olszewska and the composer at the piano. The following year, Korngold orches- trated the entire song cycle; Hungarian mez- zo-soprano Rosette Anday gave the first per- formance on January 14, 1923, with a chamber orchestra from the Vienna State Opera. “These songs,” Anday related to Korngold bi- ographer Brandan G. Carroll in 1978, “were at the time ‘modern’ in the best sense of the word, unusual, original, and quite personal in melody and harmony.” The poetry of Lieder des Abschieds centers on themes of separation and longing. Korngold arranged these in a progression from death (“Stop beloved, when I am dead, stop your grieving”) to hope (“Believe, believe that I will find you again”), in contrast to many Ro- mantic song cycles and operas that extend from love to loss, despair, and, ultimately, death. Unable to weave this somewhat un- conventional narrative from existing verses, he commissioned two poems from Ernst Lo- thar (1890–1974), a writer and director living in Vienna. The musical score conveys nu- anced expressive effects through meticulous- ly detailed performance indications. As an example, the opening tempo of the third song reads: “with the greatest, most painful calm, very slowly, always extremely restrained and expressive.” Melodic leaps and portamenti (sliding from one note to the next) in the vo- cal writing intensifies the emotional impact of the text. Korngold selected the poem “Requiem” by Christina Rossetti (1830–94)—translated into German as “Sterbelied” by Alfred Kerr—for the opening song. Drifting into an eternal sleep, the soul senses earthly things fading away. Intervallic material heard in the first few phrases, notably upward and downward leaping sevenths, recur throughout the cy- cle. The composer accompanied Countess Spiegelfeld in a private performance of “Ster- belied” on March 20, 1920. The poem “Dies eine kann mein Sehnen nim- mer fassen” (My Longing Can Never Grasp This One Thing) by Edith Ronsperger (1880– 1921) laments the decisive and irreversible separation of lovers. Korngold depicted the resulting emotional disorientation in dramat- ic and sometimes tonally unsteady vocal lines. “Mond, so gehst du wieder auf,” the first song based on Ernst Lothar’s poetry, draws on the expressionist imagery of a pale, bloodless moon. The main melody later provided a Erich Korngold RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 24 – AUGUST 15, 2021 50