Sibelius' songs are not as well-known as they should; most of them are based on poems in Swedish, a language which is not familiar to many singers; the fact that the composer used his own language is as natural as it is that it became a barrier for the singers. At his time, the song’s profits came mainly from the sale of scores, and Sibelius' market was reduced; maybe that's why his publisher, Robert Lienau, suggested him to compose a cycle from poems in German; Sibelius had lived some time in Germany, so the language didn't become a trouble. I don't know if this initiative to expand his market was financially worthwhile for the composer and the editor, I hope so, but if the aim was to compose some songs that, eventually, would become famous, I’m afraid it didn't work. The six German songs, collected as opus 50, are hardly known and most recordings are, like the rest [...]

 

Lost in translation. That's what I thought when, just before a performance of Der Tod und das Mädchen (Death and the Maiden), a translation of the poem by Matthias Claudius was heard. Tod is a masculine noun; mort, the Catalan word for death, a feminine noun; as this point wasn't clarified, the original dialogue between a man (death) and a woman became a dialogue between two women. I told my friend J. that gender swap brought a twist to the story of seduction. And he said: what story of seduction? The conversation became general (that was a "Sopar Líric", a dinner concert at the 7 Portes, one of the oldest restaurants in Barcelona) and we forgot about it. The following day, J. sent me a WhatsApp saying that my comment was most intriguing; we spent some time exchanging messages and I told him that I would write this post about that Schubert's lieder.

 

People who publish periodically are supposed to write in good time or, at least, they manage to have an article as a wild card, just in case. The first option is utopia and I don't like the second one, I prefer to explain why I'm not posting as usual and instead, writing a mini-post, always with a song (today, it's due to a frantic time during the last weeks); they're the "momenti musicali"

This week, the momento musical is special. On February 9th, forumopera.com published that Nicolai Gedda had died. According to his daughter Tania, the tenor had died a month earlier, on January 8th, at ninety-one. The two following weeks I couldn't dedicate the post to that great tenor so this week I would like to suggest [...]

 

Today at noon, the Schubertiade Vilabertran was presented in Barcelona, the 25th festival! Twenty-five years performing chamber music in a really small village at the Empordà, 150 km far from Barcelona! There are things of which we, no matter if we love music or don't, should be proud, and this is one of them. Art Song lovers, in addition, should be happy and grateful! I'm posting later than usual but I think it's worth it, I wanted to tell you about the programme, as usual. The Schubertiade will take place between August 17th and September 3rd and will include five song recitals. I must admit that, if I had to pick just one, it would be really hard:

 

Let me pose a game: if I say "Valentine's Day", what are your first thoughts? About Valentine's Day? About film noir? About Some like it hot? About Ophelia? About Ophelia and Brahms? If that's your answer, I hope you are aware that you're sicker with Art Song than you thought. Join the club!

Yes, Johannes Brahms wrote five songs based on the texts that Ophelia sings in the fifth scene of the fourth act in Hamlet; those songs are known today as Ophelia-Lieder, WoO22. It draws our attention that the whole cycle lasts no more than three minutes. We can understand this brevity better if we bear in mind that, in fact, Brahms didn't intend to write a song cycle but some incidental music, that is, music to be played during a play.