"This week I sat down a lot to compose and finally I succeeded with four poems by Rückert for my beloved Robert. I hope this would give him at least a little pleasure, which would make my wish come true".

The Marriage Diaries of Robert and Clara Schumann. January 1841

 

 

There is no Lied without a poem. Stating the obvious, I know, but sometimes we forget it, and so do forget also how important knowing the poem is. If that "we" refers only to listeners, well, it is our problem; it’s up to us to enjoy a recital by just focusing on the music or instead, also immerse ourselves in the poem. But everything changes if the programmers or the artists forget about the poems, because they prevents us, the audience, from choosing.

 

Regular readers know that when I post a "momento musical" is because, for one reason or another, I was not able to prepare an article comme il faut. I didn't have the time to write what I had thought for this week, but that's not a reason to leave you without music, and choosing a song was easy: last week I talked about Poulenc's cycle Tel jour telle nuit and I shared Nous avons fait la nuit, but I regretted that we didn't listen to Une herbe pauvre, so this week it's its turn.

 

"A cycle that can be compared to the great German Lieder cycles, such as Schubert's Winterreise or Schumann's Dichterliebe." This is what Alexis Roland-Manuel said about Tel jour telle nuit (Such a day such a night). I don't really like the comparisons between non-homogeneous things (cycles in different languages, poems and songs written 100 years later), but there's little doubt that Francis Poulenc's cycle is great and has elements in common with those mentioned by the musicologist.

 

"Mental note: find out more about August von Platen". Platen is the poet of just two lieder by Schubert and five by Brahms, they are such tormented verses that every time I listened to some, I was wondering what could have led the poet to write them. We've known one of the Schubert's lieder, Die Liebe hat gelogen, D. 751 (Love has lied); the other one is Du liebst mich nicht, D. 756 (You don't love me). Those of Brahms’ have similar topics: deceptions, pleas, I know you used to love me, why are you doing this to me... you get the idea, don't you?