Junior Recital Programme Notes

‘Allor ch’io dissi, addio’ | George Friedrich Handel

The prolific George Friedrich Handel (1685-1759) brought significant compositions to each and every musical genre in his era. A German born Englishman, he spent lengthyperiods of time in several countries including Germany and Italy, before eventually becoming an English citizen. The influence of such experiences is evident in his music.

The bulk of his efforts throughout his early career were focused on operas with Italianlibretti, although many of his compositions were purely instrumental. ‘Allor ch’io dissi,addio’ (Then I said, goodbye) is a dramatic secular cantata. It was written in the same year that he came to live with his most prominent secular patron (1707-1708) the Marquess Francesco Maria Ruspoli of Rome, who would later become Prince.

The two arias contrast greatly in temperament. The text in the first recitative and ariaspeaks of how someone, in trying to overcome great passion, is tormented by theirfeelings as they must leave their loved one behind. Handel has illustrated this struggle through the many leaps in the melodic line, as well as in placing emphasis on theinterval of a minor second. The metaphor of the wounded deer mentioned in the textcan be heard in the continuo throughout.

Sweet passions are set alight in the final half of the text as the lover has decided to end their torment and pursue their noble love. This has been brought to life in theflowing, embellished melody. Desires are set alight in flourishing ornaments anddance-like, melismatic sequences. Dotted rhythms and triplets allude to courtly dances.

‘Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé’ | Maurice Ravel

Hailed as one of the most creative and sophisticated composers of his time, Maurice Ravel (1835-1937) could arguably be labelled as musical royalty in his own right. Indeed in the 1920s and 30s he was considered France’s greatest living composer. Ravel’s compositions are as experimental as they are intellectual, despite having been labeled as an ‘impressionist’. In a similar way, the works of equally prominent poet Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898) have been described as highly symbolic and expressionally ambiguous, with obscure imagery - the meaning of which critics may still be arguing about today.

It goes without saying that Mallarmé had a profound, life-long influence on Ravel’s own

work. In an interview in the year 1927, Ravel said the poet “exorcised our language, like the magician that he was. He has released the winged thoughts, the unconscious daydreams from their prison." Hence the decision to use his poems accordingly.

Ravel was also impressed by certain works of Igor Stravinsky, Florent Schmitt and Eric Satie that he dedicated each of these songs to one of the three respectively. Ravel considered the setting of these poems an intellectual challenge, as Mallarmé’s cryptic prose was so full of meaning. Upon hearing Stravinsky’s ‘Trois poésies de la lyrique japonaise’ in 1913, Ravel was inspired to explore the potential sound colours of a chamber ensemble. Thus, ‘Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé’ was originally scored for voice, piccolo, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, string quartet, and piano.

Despite Ravel’s apparent attachment to tonality, a tonal centre is remarkably elusive. In this way he brings out the disjointed imagery in the poems, with increasing angularity and dissonance. In the first song, ‘Soupir’ (Sigh), Ravel explores the evanescent, autumnal colours in the text, following the ‘sigh-like’ structure of the two-part poem -inhalation and exhalation. ‘Placet futile’ (Futile petition), is a jagged, and chromatically melancholic love song, in which motivic transformation illustrates a ‘humble abbot (abbé) declaring his passions for the princess painted on his teacup. Ravel called the final movement ‘Surgi de la croupe et du bond’ (Sprung from the curve and leap), his “strangest and more hermetic”. The sparseness in accompaniment, obscure tonality and bell-like octaves ominously depict the sylph, observing a vase from on high.

‘Homenaje a Lope de Vega’ | Joaquín Turina

Though the songs of Spanish composer Joaquín Turina (1882-1949) are perhaps not yet as widely known as some, he nonetheless presents works that are full of his individual compositional style. Born in Seville, he was one of a number of Spanish composers such as Manuel De Falla, Isaac Albéniz and Enrique Granados whose creations were pivotal in the early 1900s.

Turina lived and studied in Paris for a number of years, where it is said he absorbed elements of the French compositional style. However, for the most part, he remained motivated by Isaac Albéniz and Manuel de Falla to continue composing distinctively Spanish music. Consequentially a significant portion of his work presents features of traditional Andalusian music. Indeed, each of the three songs in ‘Homenaje a Lope de Vega’ display copious usage of the idiosyncratic flourish of Andalusian music at the ends of phrases, as well as dotted rhythms, syncopation, as well as phrygian tonalities to this effect.

As such, he pays tribute to Spanish playwright Lope Félix de Vega Carpio (1562-1635) in this set composed in 1935. With each song, Turina has set an excerpt of text from three of Lope de Vega’s plays. The first excerpt, ‘Cuando tan hermosa os miro’ (When I look at you, so beautiful), is from ‘La discreta de enamorada’ (The discrete in love) - the story of passionate sighs and entangled relationships.

The second movement, ‘Si, con mis deseos’ (If with my desires), is from the play ‘Laestrella de Sevilla’ or ‘The Star of Seville’, referring to a beautiful woman thus named by Sancho IV, king of Castile upon his visit to Seville.

The final song, ‘Al val de Fuente Ovejuna’ (To the valley of Fuente Ovejuna), is from ‘Fuente Ovejuna’, which means “watering place of sheep” - the name of a village in Andalucía. The text depicts the instance in which a knight approaches the lovely Laurencia and tries to lure her into his trap as though she were a hunted rabbit.

TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS

GEORGE FRIEDRICH HANDEL - HWV 80

ALLOR CH’IO DISSI, ADDIOe ch'io lasciai quel memorabil loco, dove nacque il mio foco, pensò folle il cor mio tutti gli ardori suoi render di gelo, e fortuna cangiar per cangiar cielo.

Ahi lassa! Che mi segue in ogni tempo, in ogni parte amore. E di notte e di giorno a tutte l'ore all'occhio della mente, rende l'amato oggetto ognor presente.

ARIASon qual cerva ferita che fugge,dalla man che l'ancide e l'impiaga.

Ma se meco è lo stral che mi strugge lontananza non salda la piaga.

Anzi se nacque il mio amoroso desiod'una bella virtù figlio innocente, sia lontano o presente, sempre fisso è nel cor l'amato oggetto, ne a così giusto affetto, resiste di ragion l'alto consiglio, ch'anzi a seguir m'esorta un bell'amor che di virtude è figlio.

ARIAIl dolce foco mio,ch'accende un bel desio, amor lusinga.

Ma nasce un rio Timor, onde languisce il cor, che gli non finga.

Then I said, goodbyeand left that memorable place where my passion was born, my foolish heart thought to render all ardors to frost and seek my fortune under a new sky.

Alas! I am followed at all times, by every part of love. And all night and day at every hour in my mind's eye, my beloved is ever present.

ARIAI am like the wounded deer that fleesfrom the hand that kills and wounds it.

But if I carry the arrow that torments me, distance will not heal the wound.

Indeed, if my amorous desirehas born an innocent child of noble virtue, whether far away or near, the beloved is always fixed in my heart,to such affection.reason resists high council rather urges me to follow a noble love born of virtue.

ARIAMy sweet passion,which sets a fine desire alight, deceives love.

But an evil fear is born, so my heart languishes -that he does not pretend.

MAURICE RAVEL - ‘3 Poèmes de Stephanie Mallarmé’

I. SoupirMon âme vers ton front où rêve, ô calme sœur,Un automne jonché de taches de rousseur,Et vers le ciel errant de ton œil angéliqueMonte, comme dans un jardin mélancolique,Fidèle, un blanc jet d'eau soupire vers l'Azur !Vers l'azur attendri d'octobre pâle et purQui mire aux grands bassins sa langueur infinieEt laisse, sur l'eau morte où la fauve agonieDes feuilles erre au vent et creuse un froid sillon,Se trainer le soleil jaune d'un long rayon.

II. Placet FutilePrincesse! à jalouser le destin d'une HébéQui point sur cette tasse au baiser de vos lèvres;J'use mes feux mais n'ai rang discret que d'abbéEt ne figurerai même nu sur le Sèvres.

Comme je ne suis pas ton bichon embarbéNi la pastille ni du rouge, ni jeux mièvresEt que sur moi je sens ton regard clos tombéBlonde dont les coiffeurs divins sont des orfèvres!

Nommez-nous... toi de qui tant de ris framboisésSe joignent en troupeau d'agneaux apprivoisésChez tous broutant les voeux et bêlant aux délires,

Nommez-nous... pour qu'Amour ailé d'un éventailM'y peigne flûte aux doigts endormant ce bercail,Princesse, nommez-nous berger de vos sourires.

III. Surgi de la croupe et du bondSurgi de la croupe et du bondD'une verrerie éphémèreSans fleurir la veillée amèreLe col ignoré s'interrompt.

Je crois bien que deux bouches n'ontBu, ni son amant ni ma mère,

I. SighMy soul rises to your brow where dreams, o calm sister,An autumn strewn with russet freckles,And towards the wandering sky of your angelic eye,Climb, as in a melancholy garden,Faithfully, a white fountain sighs towards the Azure!Towards the tender azure of October, pale and pure,Which mirrors in the great pools, its infinite languorAnd allows, on the dead water where the tawny agonyOf the leaves wanders in the wind and digs a cold furrow,The yellow sun to drag itself out in a long ray.

II. Futile PetitionPrincess! in jealousy of the fate of a Hebe,Who takes shape on this cup at the kiss of your lips,I use up my passion, but my modest rank is only that of abbotAnd I will not even appear nude on the Sévres porcelain.

As I am not your whiskered lapdog,Neither lozenge, nor rouge, nor twee games,And that on me I know your indifferent gaze to have fallenBlonde whose divine hairdressers are goldsmiths!

Name me ... you whose many raspberried laughsGather together into flocks of docile lambs,Grazing on all desires and bleating deliriously,

Name me ... so that Love, with a fan as his wings,May paint me fingering a flute and lulling this sheepfold,Princess, appoint me shepherd of your smiles.

III. Sprung from it’s curve and the leapSprung from its curve and the leapof ephemeral glassware- without flowering its bitter vigil -the vase's ignored neck is interrupted.

I do believe that two mouths have notDrunk, neither of her lover nor my mother,

Jamais à la même chimère,Moi, sylphe de ce froid plafond!

Le pur vase d'aucun breuvageQue l'inexhaustible veuvageAgonise mais ne consent,

Naïf baiser des plus funèbres!À rien expirer annonçantUne rose dans les ténèbres.

never from the same love-cupI, sylph of this cold ceiling!

The vase untouched by any beverageThat the eternal widowhoodAgonises but never consents to,

Naïve and most death-like kiss! To breathe out no announcementa rose in the darkness.

JOAQUÍN TURINA - ‘Homenaje a Lope de Vega’

I. Cuando tan hermosa os miroCuando tan hermosa os miro,De amor suspiro,Y cuando no os veo,Suspira por mí el deseo.

Cuando mis ojos os ven, Van a gozar tanto bien; Más como por su desdén De los vuestros me retiro, De amor suspiro; Y cuando no os veo, Suspiro por mí el deseo.

II. Si con mis deseosSi con mis deseosLos tiempos caminaran,Al sol aventajaranLos pasos giganteos;Y mis dulces empleosCelebrara Sevilla,Sin envidiar celosaAmante venturosaLa regalada, y tierna tortolilla,

I. When I look at you, so beautifulWhen I look at you, so beautiful,I sigh with love,and when I do not see you,desire sighs for me.

When my eyes see you So much, they will enjoy; as I retire from your disdainful sight, I sigh with love; and when I do not see you, desire sighs for me.

II. If my desiresIf my desireswalk with the seasons,they will surpass the sunwith their giant steps;and Seville would celebratemy sweet pursuitswithout jealously envyingthe adventurous lover,the gracious, and tender turtle dove,

Que con arrullos roncos Tálamos hace de los huecos troncos.

III. Al val de Fuente OvejunaAl val de Fuente OvejunaLa niña en cabellos baja,El caballero la sigueDe la Cruz de Calatrava.

Entre las ramas se esconde,De vergonzosa y turbada, Fingiendo que no le ha visto,Pone delante las ramas.

"¿Para qué te escondesNiña gallarda? Que mis linces deseosParedes pasan."

Acercóse el caballero, Y ella, confusa y turbada,Hacer quiso celosías De las intrincadas ramas,

Mas como quien tiene amorLos mares y las montañasAtraviesa fácilimente,La dice tales palabra:.

"¿Para qué te escondesNiña gallarda? Que mis linces deseosParedes pasan."

who with her billing and cooing makes marriage beds of hollow trunks.

III. To the valley of Fuente OvejunaTo the valley of Fuente OvejunaThe young girl with the long hair goes down,The knight who bears the cross of CalatravaFollows her there.

Among the branches she hides,Shameful and troubled,Pretending she has not seen him,She puts the branches in front of her.

“Why are you hiding,Lovely girl?My lynx-eyed desire can pass through these walls.”

The knight approached,And she, troubled and confused,Tries to make a screenFrom the tangled branches,

But since those who are in love Can easily cross The seas and mountainsHe says such words to her:

“Why are you hiding,Lovely girl?My lynx-eyed desire can pass through these walls.”